Ground X
by Stella Stargaze
Summary: My brother. I had lost him. I don't know how. All I know is that there was a bright light... (Sonic Underground)
1. New beginings

They gazed up at the monitors, each showing different scenes unfold before them. One showed a dark alleyway festering with rats and scrap metal lying all along it. Another showed a plaza where all the aristocrats were gathered, having a party of some sort, with tea, cakes, and other assorted party items. Wonder what they're celebrating.

In front of the screens was a Pink hedgehog, a Green hedgehog, and a lion all looking at the surveillance from the Spy eyes they had hacked into a few months back. They were preparing for their ultimate mission. If they could do this, they just might be able to win this war and save their home!

"You guys Ready for this?"

The Green Hedgehog turned to his friend, giving him a thumbs up, "Of course Cy, we're always ready!"

Cyrus laughed, "Of course Manic. Dumb question."

"Come on Manic, focus!" the hedgehog next to him scolded, "This could be dangerous!"

"Could?"

"Manic!"

The hedgehog just laughed. "Chill Sonia, it's not like we're not used to situations like this." He put his arm around his sister, "It'll be just fine."

The girl only sighed in response. She had been kinda depressed lately. Manic couldn't see why though. They were about to start a mission that would give them a huge advantage in the war, not to mention it was their birth- Oh.

"You miss him."

She smiled sadly and nodded. "Yeah."

Manic tightened his grip around her shoulder. "Don't worry, sis. You've still got me, and I'm positive he wouldn't want you grieving all the time."

Sonia sniffed. "Yeah. I guess you're right." She leaned into her brother. "It's just weird doing this without him."

"Aren't I always right?"

"No!"

"Hey!"

They all burst out laughing. It helped to joke about it. They had all missed their friend. But right now they had to focus, this was probably their most important mission yet.

Cyrus broke the moment almost as soon as it had started. "Alright, everyone is clear on the plan, right?"

They both nodded. "There will be five different teams, each destroying different factories around the city-", Manic started.

"-during the chaos, me and Manic will sneak into the base and find a way into the main control room-", Sonia continued.

"-and download all the information from the main computers while they're busy with the factories!" Cyrus finished.

Manic slapped the back of his friend's back affectionately. "This is a genius plan Cy! There is no way we can lose after we get that info from 'Buttnik's place! Come on, Sonia! Let's go get into position."

"Wait a sec guys!"

They turned around, slightly confused at the sudden recall. "What is it Cyrus?" Sonia asked.

He smiled, "Consider this an early birthday present." He turned and rapidly typed something on his keyboard and all the surveillance disappeared to be replaced with charts and graphs that only Cyrus could understand. "I did some readings on the explosion from the incident, I wanted to see if I could tell what caused it." He paused, taking a deep breath. The siblings next to his were ridged with anticipation at the mention of the incident that happened years ago. "I don't think that the explosion was lethal."

"What?!"

Cyrus pointed to one of the graphs. "The explosion seems to have been made out of Chaos energy harnessed into one central area, from what I can tell the power was not destructive at all. There might have been a glitch in the machinery or something but instead of destroying the area it only transported anything within the area. But it didn't seem to go as far as transporting the entire building."

The two let lose a stream of questions almost instantly.

"Where was he teleported?"

"Why weren't we teleported too?"

"Chaos energy? Don't they need a chaos emerald for that?"

"If it involves chaos energy do you think it might have something to do with the floating island disappearing?"

Cyrus held up his hands to stop the torrent coming at him, "Woah, guys! Calm down! One question at a time!" They stopped. The lion released a sigh of relief as his friends finally calmed down. "Okay. First off, I'm not sure where it sent him to. All I could find is that he was sent away. As for your second question, you guys weren't close enough to the blast to be included in the transportation. They did have a chaos emerald for it, but from what I've seen, the emerald was sent to the same place as he was. I'm not entirely sure if it had anything to do with the Floating Island's disappearance, but it does make sense. Maybe the two emeralds reacted with each other? I can look into that later." He looked up to the two hedgehogs before him. "You guys okay?"

They both had tears in their eyes. Sonia's knees shook so badly she had to use Manic for support. Manic was holding on to his sister tightly, as if she might disappear as well. For so long they had thought he was gone, that they would never see him again. Now, on their birthday, they had hope again. Hope that they would see their brother again.

Sonia steadied herself, "Yeah, fine." She gave Cyrus a hug, "Best birthday present I've ever gotten."

Manic came over and put a hand on his shoulder. "The best. And we'll be able to find him."

Cyrus nodded, "Right, but let's finish the mission before we go off on this wild goose chase."

The two's faces turned serious, although the smiles stayed. "Right."


	2. Hope

The place was a mess. There were nuts and bolts scattered all around the floor. Not to mention all the tools everywhere. On the table, the couch, some had even gotten in the beds somehow! Luckily there were enough tools gathered in one place for a certain two-tailed fox to work on his plane, the Tornado.

Of course the plane wasn't actually his. He was only eight, he couldn't buy a plane on his own. No, the red and white plane belonged to his best friend, who was sitting next to the young fox, handing him tools as he asked for them.

"Screwdriver, please."

"Here ya go."

Next to the red bi-plane was the blue and yellow plane the fox had built himself. He called it the Tornado ll. (He was pretty young when he made and named it) He had already done a check on that one. There were other devices around the workshop too he had either been building it or taking it apart.

The kid was simply a prodigy. He has an IQ of about 147. He was often bullied until his friend and role model came along and changed everything. Now he had tons of friends and a lot more self-confidence because of him.

"Wrench."

"Wrench."

Finally he screwed in the last bolt. He was done!

As he started to sit up he forgot that he was still partly under the plane and banged his head into the hard metal structure. "Ow!"

"You okay Tails?"

The bruised fox looked at his friend, "Fine Sonic. Just a bruise."

Said hedgehog smiled and looked closely at the now purple spot on the fox's head. "Yeah, your right. I've had worse."

Tails got devilish smile on his face. "From Amy, right?"

Sonic gave an exhausted sigh and smiled right back at the fox. "Yes, from Amy."

This caused the two to have a giggling fit before they heard the door open and footsteps running toward them. Sonic peeked around the corner to find the exact person they were talking about. A pink hedgehog in a red dress and boots with white lining sprinting toward the hangar.

"I think we jinxed it," he whispered as his friend came to see their guest as well.

This got a quiet giggle out of the fox before he went up to the pink hedgehog, "Hey, Amy. What's goin' on?"

"Oh! Tails! Thereyouguysare! EveryoneswaitingforyouguysatGreenHillZone! We'rehavingapicnicyouguyshavetocome,"she started to take a breath which is where Sonic decided to cut in.

"Amy, calm down! We can't understand you when you talk like that!"

"I think I heard picnic and Green Hill."

The over excited hedgehog nodded. "Yeah. I was saying that everyone is at Green Hill Zone having a picnic. They're all waiting for you guys."

"Now that I can understand." Sonic rushed out of the door, then peeped back in, "You guys coming?"

"Ha ha ha! Wait for us Sonic!" Tails started spinning his namesakes and flew of after the high speed hedgehog.

"Wait for me guys!"

* * *

In Robotropilis two figures lurk in the dark, watching, waiting. It had been almost half an hour since they had taken their positions. By now they should have been getting very impatient sitting their in the dark, cold corner. A seris of the city, but they were too anxious for that. They were watching closely, looking for their sign to strike.

After what felt like an eternity they finally heard it. A series of explosions from all around the city.

Manic looked to his sister, "Ready?"

Sonia gave a determined grin, "Ready. Let's do it to it!"

The two snuck over to an air vent and tore of the metal vents keeping them from accessing the building. They were soon crawling over one of the many hallways in the maze of Robotnik's fortress.

Manic stuck his head out of safety to check for any bots making their patrols, but they were all out, busy with their little distraction.

Manic helped his sister out as he looked up and down the corridor to double check, "I can't believe they actually fell for it."

"Yeah, well, their main brain disappeared with that blast back then." Sonia stated as she smoothed out her dress.

It was true Robotnik had disappeared along with their brother that day. That was the only upside to that explosion, and in their opinion it wasn't worth losing him. Of course his lackeys had taken his job as ruler, although they hadn't really changed anything. In fact all of the Robotnik Rules had stayed. Knowing Sleet he would have changed everything to honor him. They had just thought he was being lazy, but maybe… 'No. now is not the time to think about that.' Sonia thought as she ran though the fortress toward the control room.

After several minutes and no robots to get in their way they finally reached their goal. They slowly walked up to the door, looked to each other and nodded.

But as they were about to open the door voices came through making them jump back. After a moment Manic came up to the door and cautiously cracked it open to hear the voices of Sleet, Dingo, and some man on the screen above them. "Are you sure about this?" Sleet asked.

"Of course" boomed the man on the monitor. "Don't worry about it one bit."

Manic could see Sleet cross his arms over his chest, "No offence Eggman, but how many of your plans have worked so far?"

The figure now identified as Eggman huffed at the wolf, "It's all that hedgehog's fault!"

The two eavesdroppers snapped their heads toward each other in surprise.

"Hedgehog?" Manic mouthed

Sonia pointed to the communicator around his wrist and mouthed back "call".

He look down at the wrist watch that Cyrus had given him. If he called, the whole of Freedom HQ would hear what they heard. Right now that was exactly what he needed to do.

He turned on the mute and messaged back to Cyrus. When he say the lion on the screen he held his finger to his lips to indicate that they couldn't say anything as he saw Cyrus move his lips as he talked. Cyrus soon silenced and Manic pointed the small screen of the watch toward the villains.

"The hedgehog?"

"Yes. Sonic can be quite the annoyance."

Sonia and Manic instantly perked up. Did they hear that correctly? Did he really just say 'Sonic'?

"Sonic? That little pest?"

Yes! They had heard correctly! Sonic the hedgehog was alive!

"Yes. He is very persistent. Quite childish as well."

Definitely their Sonic.

"Perhaps if you told me more about your current predicament, I could be of service." Sleet suggested with a sly smile on his face.

"Oh please." The reply came almost instantly, "You believe I actually trust you with that information? Ha! Goodbye Sleet." With that the screen went black, leaving a frustrated Sleet to stare.

The two spies outside decided to head home. They had all the information they needed now. This was the best birthday present they could ever ask for.

Back at Freedom HQ the room was filled with cheers as the listened to the news. Sonic the Hedgehog was alive and kickiin'!


	3. Not so happy birthday surprise

**Hey there. This was a really fun chapter to write so I hope you enjoy. Please review! Thx! ;)**

It didn't take long for the heroes to reach the picnic area. After all, they were known for their speed above all else. At least Sonic was. He was the first to arrive.

He skidded to a stop a few feet away from his friends, trying not to ram into one of them. When he did came to a complete stop he was a bit shocked.

"Happy birthday!"

The birthday boy broke out laughing as his surprise soon dispersed. "I had almost forgotten it was my birthday! Thanks guys!" His two-tailed friend arrived only to be caught in a head-lock from his best friend, "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Of course!" he managed to say through his laughter, "I was the one who planned it!"

Sonic finally released Tails with a huge smile plastered on his face. "And how did I not notice you planning this party?"

"You were always on one of your runs when I started the planning."

"Of course." He looked around at his surprise party, he saw the Chaotix. Charmy looked like he had already drunken half of the punch, Vector was getting on to him for something (probably drinking half of the punch). Espio was just trying to look less embarrassed than he was. Luckily he was a ninja so that was easy for him, for the most part anyway.

Next to them was Cream, Cheese, and Vanilla standing next to the snacks. Cheese was holding a cupcake with the small orb above her head in the shape of a heart. Cream also had a cupcake and had obviously been nibbling it as she had small splotches of icing around her mouth. Vanilla was tentatively fusing over her child, wiping her mouth of crumbs and icing. She gave a friendly smile to Sonic as she saw him looking their way. "Happy birthday, dear."

"Thanks, Vanilla."

A glint caught the corner of the hedgehog's eye and he looked toward it to see Omega, the Eggman robot gone good. On top of the massive robot was Rouge the bat, a GUN agent that took up treasure hunting as a hobby. Although she did like to try to steal the master emerald from Knuckles a lot. Probably so she could flirt with him. She gave Sonic a flirty wink as he glanced over. Sonic simply rolled his eyes affectionately and raised his hand in greeting. Behind the robot was what caught his attention the most. Standing with his arms crossed and his back turned to the crowd, was Shadow the Hedgehog.

Sonic leaned over to Tails, "How'd you get Shads to come?"

The fox just shrugged, "I didn't. Rouge must have dragged him along."

"Heh."

He looked over to the lake to see Amy had arrived and was talking to Big the Cat with his friend Froggy. The large purple cat had his fishing pole out and cast into the lake. 'Does he so anything besides fishing?' Sonic thought as he gazed along the water's surface. He then remembered the friendly cat helping Amy and Cream in their adventure with Metal Overlord. 'Guess he does.'

Knuckles came up to his side and patted Sonic on the back, "Happy birthday, Hedgehog." He then held out his fist for a fist-bump.

"Thanks Knux." He returned the gesture, "Let's hope a no monsters decide to come crash the party this time."

The echidna gave a short chuckle and walked to the rest of the group with Sonic and Tails right in step.

An hour later and the party was still going. The friends talking and laughing; they had even gotten Shadow to race at some point. They were just enjoying themselves.

Sonic, at the moment, was talking with Tails and Amy. Amy had actually hadn't been clinging to Sonic that much to during the party. He just guessed she had been busy talking to everyone else to constantly hand on him. She was his friend, but she tended to let her crush on him go a little far. She actually could be good company if she wasn't always trying to get you to marry her.

"How could you forget your own birthday Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Yeah. Especially after your last one." Amy added.

Sonic shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess I just… forgot"

The three cracked up. "I'd think a giant black monster that eats time and space would be memorable enough." Tails managed through his laughter.

"Because none of the stuff I do isn't memorable enough already?"

"Like genies in books or a giant death laser threatening the earth?"

"Or a god of destruction made of water destroying the city, the planet breaking apart and you turning into a werehog, maybe a tornado carrying us of onto another dimension?"

Sonic raised his hands in effort to stop the two. "Ok! Ok! I get it." He let out a giggle.

Suddenly a loud roar echoed throughout the zone. Looking up the group could see what looked like a large dragon flying toward the party a few miles away. Looking closely, you could just see a small dot floating beside it. The eggmobile.

"Again? Can't that egg head just chill for one day? Oh well." The hedgehog started stretching, gazing at the large robot in the distance. "This might be fun!"

All the guests stood ready behind him. They knew that they were in for a fight. Of course with all of them there it couldn't be that hard. They'd been through thick and thin together. Heck, they've thought that another of them was dead before. They could handle this thing.

It didn't take long for the scientist to reach him. That robot moved pretty quickly considering how much metal was used to build it. It was about four stories high, not including the tail. That was thirty miles in length on its own. The body was split into different parts, probably so it could move easier. It also had small separate squares of metal arranged around it. 'Doors' Sonic realized. They were hatches for weaponry. The head was straight edged; it had no curves in it what so ever. It was like he had spent so much time on the rest of the body that he had to rush the head just to have it ready for the party. The entire thing was painted a bright red, the only exceptions being its stomach and snout, which were a deep black.

"Hedgehog!"

Said hedgehog placed his hands on his hips and gazed up at the doctor with a bored look on his face. Although his eyes revealed the excitement in those emerald orbs. "No 'Happy birthday' or 'hello how are you'? That's a bit rude, wouldn't you say?"

Eggman scowled at the blue blur with pure hate reflecting off of his small, round glasses. "I'm so sorry hedgehog. Happy. Birthday."

Sonic was slightly confused at his reply. He had expected old egg head to make some rude retort. Something was going on. And he could bet he wasn't going to like it.

The mad doctor confirmed his suspicions just a moment later. "But it's not just your birthday, now is it?"

Knuckles came up to his friend when he saw him tense up. Putting a hand on his shoulder, he glared up at the egg shaped man in his hover craft. "Beat it egg head. I don't remember us inviting you to the party." Hate dripped out of his voice.

"Oh? Am I getting on your nerves? Good. That's just what I came here for." The dictator's dragon let out a roar. "And I'm not done!"

Sonic scowled at his nemeses. Did he really have to do this now of all days? He already had problems with his past every once and a while, but Eggman had never brought it up. Why should he now? There were plenty of other ways to get on his nerves. Most involved water. Of all times he chose to pick his birthday party, with all his friends. All his friends….

He never told them! The only one who knew was Knuckles and that was only because he was part of it. It's not like it's the easiest thing to explain. Especially after so long. Oh man! He was in big trouble now.

"You never told them, did you?" Eggman's voice took him out of his thoughts, "Although I can't blame you. Something like that is probably better kept a secret."

The hedgehog glanced behind him to his friends. They all looked utterly confused. Amy stepped up. "What are you talking about?"

"His family of course!"

"Huh?"

The doctor held up a hand, a dastardly grin on his face, "how much has this little pest actually told about his past?" No one answered him. "That's what I thought." He signaled to his drag-bot to attack.

All party goers scattered as the attack dragon shoot flames toward the group. Amy landed closest to Sonic. "Sonic what was he talking about?!"

The blue blur physically winced when he heard her question. "Listen. Amy." Another blast of fire came toward them. "I'll explain later! Right now we need to get rid of that thing!"

The only reply was a short nod. He felt really bad about lying to his friends, but at the moment, the bigger concern was the giant robot trying to kill them.

Suddenly he had an idea. "Everyone! Try to distract it! Amy come with me." Not checking to see if the others heard him he grabbed Amy and ran to the top of a loop close by.

Amy rested her hammer on the ground and looked at her so called 'boyfriend' with a curious look in her eyes. "What's going on in that head of yours, Sonic?"

Said hedgehog was looking toward the battle, calculating distances. He didn't even hear her question. "I think that this is high enough."

"Sonic!"

The sudden yell made him jump almost ten feet in the air from surprise. "Wha-! Uh. Sorry Amy." He smiled nervously.

The pink hedgehog sighed. He never listens. "What's your plan here?"

Sonic perked. "Oh!" He pointed back to the picnic. "From here I might be able to hit him, but I need a little boast to reach it. Think you could hit me that far?"

The hammer happy girl held up her hammer. "I can hit you there and back." She gave him a wink.

He rolled his eyes with his back turned toward her. He didn't want any bruises from that hammer of hers. "Great. Get ready." He started spinning, going faster and faster, till he was only a blue ball. A very deadly blue ball. "Now!"

She hit him as hard as she could. Of course it didn't hurt him. Not much ever hurt him during a spin dash. That made it perfect for combo attacks, either Knuckles would punch or kick him or Amy would hit him with her piko piko hammer to launch him with double the force.

He was right about the height. He hit it square on the head, knocking it off. It landed near Vector who had been shooting his own flames at the bot to keep its attention. The crocodile fell on his rump in his effort to dodge the metal head. He sighed in relief right before it exploded, covering him with black soot.

The hedgehog came out of his spin, landing a few feet from the decapitated robot. There wasn't a single scratch on him.

The robot on the other hand, wasn't doing too well. After the blue wrecking ball took its head off, the creation just floated there for a second, like it was thinking about what just happened. (Of course it couldn't, Sonic _had_ taken its head off.) then, after a few sparks of electricity, it burst into flames, falling to the group. In fact, the fall was angled toward the eggmobile.

"NO NO NO NO! THIS ISNT THE END HEDGEHOG! I'LL GET YOU YET!" For such a big man he sure could move fast. He was long gone by the time Amy got back.

She waved her hand in front of her face in an effort to keep the smoke out of her face. "Now," she turned on Sonic, "what was he talking about!?"

His expression immediately fell. He looked away, not just from Amy, but from all his friends. Tails slowly inched forward, "Sonic?"

"I'm sorry okay?!"

The young fox was taken aback at his big brother's sudden burst. He had never done that. Not to Knuckles, not even at Eggman. Nobody. Tails knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. Eggman was right when he said they didn't know much about his past. He would always change the subject when someone brought it up.

Sonic looked down at his shoes, "Sorry Tails. It's just-"he stopped, glancing to Knuckles for support. Unfortunately the echidna just shrugged, not sure of what to do.

Tails realized what that meant, "Knuckles, do you know something about this?"

He sadly nodded. Although he didn't look nearly as miserable as Sonic. The blue hedgehog had his ears folded down; he wasn't meeting anyone's eyes either. His shoulders slumped and he had his arms across his chest. There was what seemed like a film over his emerald eyes, like he was on the verge of tears.

All his friends felt guilty, even Shadow felt bad. This was his birthday and he was spending it being interrogated about his past, which was obviously a touchy subject for him. He was about to cry for goodness sake. He was supposed to be having fun with his friends, not telling them his deepest secret. But curiosity got the better of them. If it was this bad they wanted to help, but they couldn't do that if he just kept it to himself.

Tails walked up to his best friend to stand right next to him. "Sonic. What happened?"

The not so happy birthday boy finally made eye contact, and it broke Tails's heart. He had never seen the hedgehog so defeated. So many emotions were swimming in his eyes. Misery, sadness, regret, longing, all of his emotions were negative. No one knew of anytime that Sonic had ever actually shown these types of emotions. Until now.

"Alright guys. It's a long story so you better get comfortable."


	4. Sonic's story

**ABCSonicKirbyWarriors : Thx for the review! I had a lot of fun writing the moment with Sonia and Manic so expect more like it! ;)**

How long has it been? How long since I left? Well, I wouldn't really say I left there. It was more like I got teleported away.

My siblings and I were on a mission, we had to destroy a new base off the coast of the Mobian Sea. I was a little nervous. After all, I do really hate water, which I guess is why they choose to build it so close to the ocean. My sister was driving while my brother banged his drumsticks on the dash of our van. I was in the back trying not to have a panic attack. Throughout the drive one of them would try to cheer me up, saying things like "We're only going to the base not the water" or "We'll be right there with you." That did make me feel a little better, but I still had this really bad feeling in my gut. A feeling that had nothing to do with my fear of water, but a feeling that this was going to end up bigger than just destroying a base.

Boy was I right.

It took a few hours of bumpy roads, swatbot patrols, and getting lost whenever my brother decided to drive, but we finally made it to the base. The place was huge. It looked to be 5 stories high and about 30 times the width of our van. The two top floors of the building had window circling the entire thing. Some of them liked like they were glowing. There wasn't much security around. Only a few patrols walking around the perimeter, and not even in large groups. There was one bot guarding each of the entrances. One was a large metal door that probably weighed more than the building. It was pure black with huge chains keeping it from opening. It must have just been decoration of something though. The other was a small garage door with a pass code lock on it with a swatbot next to it, guarding against intruders. That was our way in.

It took ten minutes to get to the door (with no swatbuts noticing us I might add). The guard was easy enough to get rid of, one laser blast and it was gone. It took barely any time to hack into the building. Not even two minutes and we were in. Easy. A little too easy for my comfort.

The inside was less spectacular than the outside. Outside it was big and dark, but inside it was kind of plain. There was a huge hallway in front of us with boring tan walls and a ROBOTNIK RULES poster occasionally posted along it. (Probably someone trying to kiss up to the big boss man). Not all the lights were working so that you'd have to walk through a dark area every few feet. For a new top secret base it isn't kept very well. The smell of the sea floated in the air as though a constant reminder of where we were. 'Thanks for that Buttnik'. Every once and a while we would find a room as we walked down the hall. Mst were locked and the few that weren't were completely empty.

The farther in we went the more I thought of how easily we got in, of the giant metal door that was impossible to open, and the bad feeling that was growing inside me. I looked over at my siblings to see if they had any of the suspicions I did. They didn't.

After what felt like hours we came across a large door at the end of the hallway. There had been no turns, no forks in the hall, nothing. Just a straight path to this door. I never knew that through that door would be what changed my life forever. That would lead me to new places and new friends. That would take me away from the life I knew into a whole new life. The life of Sonic the Hedgehog.

**Sorry if it's short. I'll make sure post the next chapter tomorrow. Thx for reading! :)**


	5. the search begins

**Sorry the last story was so short. If I ever have a chapter that short I'll make sure to post another one the same day.**

Freedom HQ was buzzing. Everyone was talking. Ever since Manic had transmitted the conversation between Eggman and Sleet the entire mood had been lifted ten times as high.

The happiest of them all was Sonia and Manic, who were gathered around the table of their plan room with all their friends.

"I can't believe it!" Sonia was pacing the floor, she just couldn't sit down.

"I know! I'm so happy for you Sonia." Mandy, Sonia's best friend, was watching the ecstatic hedgehog from her seat. She had found Sonia as soon as she heard the news. She had been so depressed after she had come home from that mission so long ago. It took all of Mindy's know how to bring her back. Pedicures, shopping, hair appointments, everything they used to do before Sonia learned about her mother. Now she was here to share the joy with her BFF.

Trevor was sitting between Manic and Cyrus across the table. "Looks like your readings were right Cyrus. Do you think you'll be able to pin point where he was sent?" Trevor had known Sonic since he had joined the freedom fighters as a kid. He had tried to help out more when he had gone missing, but he knew it was nothing compared to Sonic. Sonic was one of their top fighters even when he was starting out. He destroyed factories in under five minutes, broke force fields, even stopped transit trucks all without being identified. There was no way anyone could replace him in any way.

The lion gazed over to his friend, "I'm not sure," he looked slightly defeated. "Even if I can track him, I'll only be able to get the general area."

"Don't worry 'bout it Cy." Manic place a hand of his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. "Even if you can't find him, we know he's alive! We'll just go out find him!"

"In that case," he got up and walked over to the monitor, preparing for a long nights work. "I better help you guys any way I can!"

By the time he was done he was ready to pass out. He had spent the entire nights analyzing and sorting data. His eye lids were drooping so much they were almost completely closed, but he was smiling.

It was a success! He had figured out were Sonic was! Or at least the general area at least.

His friends came in first thing in the morning so at least he wouldn't fall asleep before they got there.

"Woah! Cyrus!" Manic ran up, very worried, "You look like some kind of zombie!""

Said 'zombie' gave a small chuckle at the hedgehog's reaction. "I'm fine Manic." He trudged over to the monitor. "Better than fine actually. Look."

They all looked at the image he was indicating. A huge smile overcame each of them. "You did it!"

Cyrus's own smile broadened. "Yep. Although it might be hard to got to him if the I read the results right."

Sonia was bursting with enthusiasm, "Because that will stop us. Where is that anyway? I don't recognize it from any maps."

"That's the thing," He didn't take his eyes off the screen. "The area hasn't been charted. Not even Robotnik had explored it!"

"Are you serious? I'd think that ol' Buttnik would want to expand his land more. Why wouldn't he send out some robots or something?"

The half-asleep lion shrugged. "I don't know Manic. But I do know that that man Sleet and Dingo were talking to is from that area. That's the only way he would know about Sonic, anyway"

Trevor had started gazing at the data along with Cyrus, a serious look on his face. "Do you think this will be enough to find him?"

Cyrus nodded, slowly because of his drowsiness. "It has to. This is all I could get."

Sonia, seeing Cyrus's exhaustion, put a hand on his shoulder. "You look beat Cyrus. Go get some rest." She gave her brother a meaningful look, "We'll head over there and find Sonic." With that she and Manic started heading toward the door.

"Wait."

The two did a 360 to look back at the lion. "What is it Cy?"

"We dint know anything about this place. It could be a lot more dangerous than Robotropilis. You should go talk to-"

Sonia held up her to silence him. "Way ahead of you. Now go get some z's before you pass out."

Cyrus gave a nod of both gratitude and drowsiness and went back to take a well-deserved nap. A ten hour nap maybe but a nap was still a nap.

"Good luck hedgehogs"

"Thanks Trevor." Suddenly the princess found her shoes very interesting, "Do you think he's alright?"

Manic put an arm around his sister. "'Course he is Sis'. Why you worrying so much?"

"It's like Cyrus said, we don't know what's out there. What if he got hurt or…or?"

"Sonia." The pink hedgehog grew quiet at her brother's voice. "Sonic knows how to take care of himself. Plus, by now, hes probably gotten used to the dangers up there. He's just fine."

Sonia sniffed and smiled up at her brother, obviously appreciative of the pep talk. But Manic wasn't sure if he was just talking to his sister or to himself as well. To tell the truth he was just as worried as Sonia. He knew Sonic could handle himself out there. He could do just about anything with a smirk on his face and a whole barrage of insults and smart remarks in his corner. Still… against unknown enemies in unknown terrain… even Sonic must have his limits.

Well, it didn't matter now. They were going to go rescue him, no matter what dangers awaited them. So they went off to the one person on Mobius who could tell them anything about the new land that their brother had been trapped in…. the Oracle of Delphi.


	6. Best birthday ever!

**ABCSonicKirbyWarriors: I just had to put him in there, it's not Sonic Underground without him! As for what's next, you'll have to wait and find out! :D**

Sonic was sitting on the ground, leaning against a nearby tree, a look of complete misery and sorrow on his face. Not that his friends could see his face very well, he was staring down into his lap.

Amy, at some point during the story, had taken her hammer back out, but now the mallet rested on the ground. She couldn't be angry with him now. Not when he was like this.

Almost all of their audience were gaping at him. Not that anyone could blame them. He had been able to hide this for years. Even Shadow was staring at him.

Tails, being the closest one to Sonic (both physically and bond wise), tried to comfort him. "Son-"

Before he could even complete the hedgehog's name he bolted off at supersonic speed. The fox's ears folded down. He couldn't help feeling like he had caused Sonic's pain at the moment.

Knuckles however, knew better. "Come on kid, let's see if we can find him." Sonic needed friends right now, whether he wanted them or not.

"I'm coming too!"

Knuckles shook his head at the impulsive girl. "No Amy. Me an-"

"Why not!"

The echidna took a deep breath. Amy could be really annoying when she wanted to. "Amy, you can't." He held up his hand as he saw her about to protest. "Sonic is probably really upset right now. Me and Tails are the ones closest to him. We'll have a better chance to help him than if everyone came at once."

Amy gave a slight huff but did mumble an agreement.

"Will Mr. Sonic be okay?" Cream asked, worry eminent in her eyes.

Tails glanced to Knuckles, the kit truthfully wasn't sure. He had known Sonic for the longest (besides Knuckles) and had never seen him like this. He wasn't used to seeing his big brother so depressed.

Big brother.

It seemed weird calling him that. Now that he knew about his siblings.

"He'll be just fine." Knuckles seemed to be talking to Tails more than the small rabbit that had asked the question.

She seemed happy with the answer though. "Good! You'll make sure he'll come back just as happy and fun as ever right, Mr. Tails"

Tails smiled down at the six year old and nodded. The childish naivety seemed contagious. "Yeah. Yeah, we will."

Charmy started buzzing over all their heads, "Yeah! It's no fun when he's all sad!"

"Big blue needs to stop being so blue."

"He's still Sonic, royalty or not."

Tails felt better hearing all his friends. He looked over to Knuckles and nodded. Time to find Sonic.

It didn't take long for them to find him. He was sitting on one of the loops a good distance away from his birthday party, just staring of into the distance.

Tails airlifted Knuckles up stood there for a minute. He wasn't sure what to do. Luckily Knux was there to help. He stood behind the fox and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry about it Tails. He hasn't changed, just talk to him. Come on." He dragged Tails over to the hedgehog, Tails getting butterflies with each step.

Sonic didn't notice them until they were a few feet away. He turned to them, trying to put on a brave face. It didn't work. "Hey guys."

"Sonic are you okay?"

"Yeah buddy, I'm fine. Just some memories comin back." He laid down, putting his hands over his eyes. "It's kinda hard."

Tails somehow sympathized with him. He hadn't had any family before Sonic, he had been all alone. Sonic had lost his. That must be one of the loneliest feeling in the world. "You're not alone Sonic."

The blue blur looked up at his friend, a questionable look on his face. "Huh?"

The kit shifted uncomfortably. "Well, you've still got Knuckles and me and all the others. They were all talking about how they want you back to your old self, happy and fun." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "And I do too."

Sonic smiled at his adopted little brother. He could tell what was gnawing at the fox. "Don't worry lil' bro, I'll be back to normal in no time."

Tails's ears flicked his up when he heard him say 'lil' bro'. He suddenly relaxed. His biggest worry had just been taken away. He sat down next to his best friend who put his arms around him.

"Thanks for comin up here Tails." He looked back to the echidna, "You too Knux."

Knuckles only nodded.

Tails leaned into Sonic, "Ya' know..I was kind of worried."

"'Bout what?"

"Well…" he paused for a second, building courage. "Your my only family, and when you told us about your brother and sister I felt like I might have been just a… Replacement. And when you ran off I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault."

"That's a lot of worry over little ol' me." He tightened his grip around the fox's shoulder, "Don't worry Tails, you'll always be my little brother. Triplets or no triplets. And it wasn't your fault when I ran off, I just needed to clear my head."

The two-tailed fox smiled gratefully at his big brother. He wasn't about to lose his family.

"Come on guys," Sonic got up and helped Tails stand as well, "I think we ought to get back to my party."

When they arrived back everyone cheered. Sonic smiled, they didn't seem mad at him or anything. Although he guessed he might get a mallet to the head later.

"Sonic! Your back!" Amy was astatic.

"Yep! And better than ever!"

Amy giggled, happy to see Sonic back to normal, "Now that's the Sonic we know and love!" She jumped to Sonic, tackling him in a bear hug.

Sonic fell to the ground, "Woah!"

Suddenly there was a yell through the meadow, "DOGPILE!"

Then about eight people on top of them, all laughing their heads off. Cheese floated to the top of the pile exclaiming proudly, "Chao!" This just stated the laughter right back up.

At the bottom a certain hedgehog was looking to his friends piled on top of him (luckily Omega wasn't one of them), "Best birthday ever!"


	7. A New Land

It was definitely below zero. Even the inside of the van was freezing! The snow went as far as the eye could see, like it never ended. They were about to turn into hog-sicles.

But they had to be here. This was where the Oracle of Delphi lived.

"Why does the oracle live here? It's so cold my spines might fall off!" Manic complained.

"Well it is secluded. It probably helps protect him." Sonia, who was driving, looked away from the white terrain ahead to answer.

Her brother shivered next to her, "Sleet and Dingo still found it."

She had to give him that one. In fact, that was one of their first missions together as a family. "Yeah, but they didn't succeed at destroying him."

"True." He conceded. "And they've never come back!"

Sonia smiled at her brother, looked back to her set path, then slammed on the brakes. "We're here."

Manic, who had almost been plastered to the windshield, gave her a sideling look. "Oh, really?"

She got up, hitting him on the back of the head as she passed, "Come on, smart mouth. Let's go."

The green hedgehog just laughed and followed his sister out into the cold. The snow came up right below his knees, and it was cold. The wind knocked into him, as if to try to push him along with it, and it was cold. Did I mention it was cold?

He decided to get his hover board and float right above the snow to avoid some of the cold. He kept it in the back of the van, he just hoped it wasn't as frozen as he was.

Lucky for him, it wasn't. He quickly activated it. Then proceeded to zoom past Sonia, blowing snow all over her.

"Manic!"

Said troublemaker bent over laughing, holding his stomach. This however threw him off balance and he fell face first into the snow, at which Sonia started falling over laughing. She soon got a snowball in her face compliments of Manic, who then ran as his sister charged at him. Although he did forget one thing.

A wall of white overcame his as a pink blur passed by him. "Hey!"

"Consider us even now!"

"I see your spirits have not dampened since I last saw you."

The two searched the vast ocean of white for the voice, though they were pretty sure who it belonged to.

He appeared directly in front of them. "It's good to see you again."

"Oracle! Man, don't scare us like that!"

The prophet simply smiled, "Of course. Now why don't we continue this in my home?"

Before they could reply a green light enveloped the three, teleporting them to the oracle's abode. The small cave was cluttered with different potions, charms, and other magic ma'hickies.

The prophet guided them to a small area with what seemed to be a small bird bath. "You are here about the unknown land, correct?"

"Yeah," Sonia said, slightly surprised, "how did you know?"

"I have my ways." He walked up to the bird bath, "And this is one of them."

"A bird bath?"

He sighed, "No Manic. It's not a bird bath." He waved his hand over the shallow pool in the bowl. "It's a viewing pool."

Sonia snapped her fingers, recognizing the name, "Oh! I know those. They show whatever the user wishes."

"How did you know that?"

"School." She gave him a 'duh' look.

"They covered magic at your school?" Manic 'innocently' asked.

Sonia wasn't amused, "It was a study of myths, not magic!"

The Oracle interrupted the argument, "Yes, that is correct Sonia. These do indeed show what their masters ask, but only if the owner knows of what they are looking."

"So basically," Sonia asked, "you have to have at least some knowledge on what your projecting into it."

He nodded, "That would be correct. These have been used since the times of King Arthur."

Manic peered into the small pool, "So can you show us anything about where we're going?" He hesitated for a second, not knowing whether to ask or not. "Or maybe Sonic?"

The Oracle sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I cannot find your brother with it." the two slowly nodded, they had guessed as much. "But I can show you the land where he has been sent." With that he started waving his hands over the bowl, causing smoke to rise out of it.

A bright light shot out of it, blinding the hedgehogs stand next to it. The light however, dispersed as soon as it began. The two cautiously unshielded their eyes to see the viewing pool softly glowing. The prophet gestured to it, inviting the two to look.

They certainly weren't expecting this. In the water showed a large field with the greenest grass they've ever seen. Multi colored flowers dotted throughout it. A large loop like structure was shown on the side.

"Don't think that this land has no danger." The Oracle warned, seeing the awestruck looks on their faces.

The scene changed to a large gray building that reminded them of one of Robotnik's bases. As they watched a door on the side of the fortress opened, revealing dozens of robots all different sizes and shapes. There were some in the air that looked like bees with guns instead of stingers, some were ladybugs with wheels on the bottom. There were tons more along with them.

"Oh my gosh!"

Manic looked to his sister in alarm, "All of those are where Sonic is?!"

Sonia had already started for the door, "We have to go! Thanks for the help."

Manic soon followed, "Yeah! Thanks Orc."

"Wait." the two stopped. "Why don't I help you with one more thing."

"Huh?"

A green light enveloped them, and they soon disappeared, transported to their destination.

"I hope they succeed."

He once again waved his hand over the bowl. The image shifted to a party, with a certain blue hedgehog at the bottom of a pile of friends.

"Happy birthday, Sonic."

**I hope I portrayed The Oracle of Delphi right. Hope you guys enjoyed! ;)**


	8. Someday

**Okay, so I've learned that when it comes to fillers, I can easily get writers block for a few hours. But here it is. Enjoy! ;)**

As his friends (apart from Shadow, Omega, and Vanilla) eventually did get off of Sonic, still chuckling. The hedgehog was much more relaxed now that he knew his friends weren't mad at him.

He sat up as all the weight was lifted from his back, "Anybody up for some cake?"

They were all soon eating cake, back to having a good time. Shadow had even joined them at the table instead of standing behind Omega like he didn't want to be here. (Which he probably didn't) Cheese had settled down on Sonic's head, snuggling into the hedgehog's fur.

Amy was sitting next to Sonic with Cream by her side, giggling at the chao. "Awww…"

The small orb on top of her head turned into a heart, "Chao!"

Everyone around the table laughed at the little chao's cuteness. Sonic reached up to pet her small head. "You being all cute up there?" The choa replied by rubbing up against his hand. "Cause I can't see any of it."

This started up another wave of laughter among the group. Cheese, enjoying the attention, continued the cute streak by holding Sonic's ears. Sonic slightly winced, but was glad that this time he actually knew what was so cute that the chao was doing.

Tails had taken out a small box wrapped in white paper with a blue ribbon while everyone had been distracted with Cheese (he himself had been for a second) and gave it to Sonic now.

"What's this, buddy?"

"Open it.

He did just that and saw that inside was a small orange watch with a tiny screen and keypad attached to it. Sonic's name had been engraved onto the band of the watch.

"It's a communicator," Tails explained, "that way we don't always have to yell across the battle field or we can talk to you while you're on runs."

Sonic quickly place the communicator around his wrist, "Cool!" Then he looked at the buttons. "Uh… I have no clue what any of these do."

The fox had to reframe from laughing, he might have slightly failed though, "Here, I'll show you."

"Alright, just stop snickering."

Yep. He had definitely failed.

After a short explanation, they decided they would test out the new devise.

"So how far should I go?"

"I don't know, as far as you want I guess." Tails answered.

"Cool." Sonic dashed off to wherever, and his voice soon came through Tails's own communicator, "Tails? Can you guys hear me?"

Tails practically jumped in excitement, "Yeah, you coming in loud and clear!"

"Sweet!" came the reply through the watch.

Knuckles came up to the fox, "Where are you?" he asked through the communicator.

"Spagonia." He answered. (BTW: Spagonia in several thousands of miles away)

Knuckles let loose a slow whistle. "That's a while away, nice job Tails."

Tails rubbed the head timidly, "Thanks Knux. You should probably head

Back Sonic."

"Alright, I've just got to pick something on the way."

"What?" Sonic had already disconnected. The fox sighed to himself, "Guess we'll have to wait."

Back at Tails and Sonic's house, the hedgehog walked into his room. The place was a bit clustered with some robots' heads from the first ones he destroyed, a old pair of sneaks, and a few knickknacks from different places he ran to. None of these held any interest to him, what he was looking was a small box.

When he found it under his bed he placed it on his lap, then slowly opened it, reveling a small medallion in the shape of a gutair.

* * *

He soon arrived back at the party, being greeted by Cheese.

"Chao!"

Sonic petted the little chao. "Hey there pal."

Tails ran up to him as Cheese floated back up to the hedgehog's head (which had apparently become the chao's spot for the day), "Hey, you're back! What were you doing?"

Sonic took out the small box he had picked up at their house, "Getting this."

Amy gazed at the box, "What's in it?"

"I'll show you." He gingerly lifted the lid up and took the medallion. "You remember my story?"

Everyone but Knuckles had a surprised look on their face. Tails came up for a closer look, "This is your medallion that you used with your brother and sister?"

Sonic nodded, "Yep, wonder if I can still get it to transform."

Vector and Charmy started chanting "Do it! Do it!" from the back of the group. Others joined in as well.

Sonic laughed, "Alright, alright. I'll give it a go." He tied the ribbon around his neck, careful not to get any of his spines in the knot, then touched the guitar, focusing his thoughts on its magic. He was rewarded with his purple guitar. "Awsome!"

Charmy started buzzing above everyone's heads, "It worked! It worked! It worked!"

Rouge strolled to the front, "Why don't play something?"

"Sure thing," he thought for second, going through a list songs in his head, "how 'bout a song played with my sibs?"

They all nodded. "Sounds good to me." Amy said, already bouncing up and down in excitement.

With that he started up the tune,

"There's Something missing

Something's not quite right

And I can feel it calling

To me every night"

He imagined his sister singing her own lines,

"A little voice inside

Tells me someone is out there

And I must never give up

Searching everywhere!"

His friends had started dancing to his music as he continued,

"(Someday) We are gonna be together

(Someday) Life will be so much better

(Someday) We will build a band no one can break

(Someday) No more dark clouds above

(Someday) United in the light of love

(Someday) The story can only end one way

We'll be together someday

Somed-"

A loud crash ended the song short.

"What was that?!" Cream asked, very alarmed.

"I don't know, but I say we figure out." Knuckles started forward with all the others behind him. Sonic beside him.

"Who wants to bet Eggman?"


	9. My brother

**ABCSonicKirbyWarriors: I know! YAY! More reviews! And dang it! Dumb grammer XD**

**Eggman hater: Thank you so much! I don't think they really had a reason to cancel it though. they just did. which is really stupid. Oh well, more fanfiction for us!**

As the green light dispersed around them they slowly blinked their eyes open to see the exact landscape they had seen through the Oracle's viewing pool.

"Warning might have been nice." Complained Manic as he looked around at the new terrain. "I nearly had a heart attack."

Sonia was having similar reactions next to him. "Yeah, but we're here." She looked around, "Man, it's so beautiful here."

"Yeah, our bro has incredible luck getting stuck here instead of some hole in the ground or something."

Sonia had started walking toward a large loop that clearly stood out from the rest of the terrain, "Wonder if this was man made or some weird erosion." She was clearly off in her own little world.

Manic, seeing this, decided to do some exploring of his own. He strolled over to a group of palm trees that were growing a few feet away from their arrival point. He took out his drum sticks and, doing what he did best, banged them against the trunk of one of them. What he didn't expect was for a small computer monitor capsule to fall out of its leaves.

The drummer let a small yelp escape him and fell down, landing on his rump. His concerned sister, her attention now drawn away from the loop and the mystery of its creation, ran over to him. "Are you okay?"

The green hedgehog took the hand his sibling offered and stood up, stumbling slightly. "Yeah." He looked at the small capsule that had nearly given him a nasty head bump. "What's that?"

Sonia tapped it experimentally, "Don't know. How do we figure out?"

Manic slowly circled it, then noticed something, "Hey! There's a picture on it!" He bent down for a better look at the image, "I think it's a golden ring."

She bent down next to him so that she could examine it herself. "You're right. That must be what's inside. Now how are we supposed to open it?"

This was a problem. There were no locks or anything to pick into to open. An idea came to the thief. If you can't be quiet about something… "Stand back."

Before his sister could ask what he was doing he kicked the capsule with as much force as he could. It gave easily under the pressure of his foot and soon there were about twenty rings pouring out of it.

Sonia blinked a couple times, surprised by the sudden action, but quickly regained her wits. "Well, that worked."

Her brother picked up one of the rings, "Yep, wonder what they use these for."

The princess next to him gave him an exhausted look, "Its gold Manic. It's probably the currency or something like that. It is a rare metal after all."

"Then why put it up in a tree in a safe that can easily be kicked open?"

That got her. That was a very strange way to store money. Really unsafe too. "I don't know. Maybe Sonic will know when we find him."

Manic perked up at the mention of their quest, "Right! Let's go find him! We need to spend our birthday together!"

Sonia had almost forgotten it was still their birthday. With all that had happened so far today it had felt like they had passed it.

She looked up at the sun, shielding her eyes from its glare. From its position she guessed it was around noon, maybe a little later. "We're comin' Sonic."

They spent the next half hour walking through the lush green fields. Sonia often ran ahead to look at some flowers that seemed new. 'Most flowers are new with our environment.' Manic thought stopping to wait for his sister as she gazed at another patch of wild flowers.

"Come on sis let's get movin'."

She nodded, rising to her feet. She opened her mouth only close it again as they heard a strange maniacal laugh ring through the fields.

"HO HO HO!"

"What the- who is that?" Sonia finally said.

Manic started to follow the sound of the voice. "Let's find out."

When they reach the source of the laugh they found the same man that had been on the monitors talking to Sleet. There was a large capsule in front of him with a weird cube shaped robot on top of what looked like a weight sensitive trigger, the bot wasn't big enough to set it off though. An orb one was on top of the strange craft he was riding

"What's he doing?" Sonia whispered to her brother, trying not to let the man hear them.

"Don't know. Probably nothing good. We should try and stop him." He replied.

"How? We don't even know what he's doing."

For some reason that was when the doctor decided to turn in his seat, in doing so caught a glimpse of his observers. "Oh! It would appear we have guests!"

Manic winced, "Busted." He slowly stood, revealing himself completely. His sister did the same. "What are you doing here?"

Eggman ignored the question, "Manic and Sonia yes?" he looked at their expressions, "Oh don't look so surprised, I've been talking to Sleet and that idiot Dingo for a while now. I know much about you two. Including why you're here."

Sonia was quite taken aback by this, "You-you know- why we're?"

"Oh yes. You're looking for your brother, correct? Sonic?" Short and to the point.

Manic was suddenly filled with rage, this man definetly didn't seem like the most trustworthy person in the world, if he knew their brother… "Yeah!" he yelled, "Where is he!"

"Closer than you think."

"Huh?"

Suddenly a large boom echoed through the area and a small palm fell over. Dust flew everywhere, blinding the two hedgehogs. They could hear Eggman's laughing through the sudden dust storm. When they opened their eyes though, they weren't prepared for what they saw.

Standing before them, was a robot that looked exactly like their brother.

**You are a very good guesser Eggman Hater. Provo ;)**


	10. Past brought back

**I feel I should warn you. I made a really dumb joke about one of the characters. You'll know it when you see it.**

The group was zooming past. Nothing but a bunch of different colored blurs. They soon came to the site where they thought the loud sound had come from.

"Tails, go up and see if you can tell who or what made that crashing sound." Sonic directed.

"Got it." The fox started spinning his namesakes, taking off to the air. When he reached a high enough altitude to see he almost fell out of the sky in shock. There was Eggman, who he had expected, and then there was Metal Sonic in front of him, as cold and menacing as ever.

And then there were two hedgehogs.

* * *

Sonia and Manic stood frozen at the sight of the robot. It looked exactly like Sonic. Except for the glowing red eyes. That was new.

'Oh no. He didn't. He couldn't. Sonic, robotized?' Manic thought, trying hard not to cry. It was impossible for him to have been caught. It couldn't be true. It couldn't!

Eggman, as if reading his mind, said, "Oh, this is quite real. This here is Metal Sonic."

Sonia was shaking, with grief or anger or both, Manic couldn't tell. She took a brave step forward, almost falling over in the process. "What did you do?" she sounded like she was half weeping the words out.

A sinister grin came to the madman's face, "Nothing at all my dear."

She growled, a very unladylike ting for her. Of course neither was shooting down robots with lasers or trudging through the sewers, but still. She brought out her piano gun, glaring at the man hovering above them.

"My my. No need to get feisty."

Manic came up beside his sister, "There's plenty of need if you ask me." He reached for his medallion, ready for action.

Eggman sat back in his chair completely relaxed with his round bot next to him. He was clearly enjoying the show. "Hmph. Why don't we let some of that energy out."

Metal's eyes started glowing brighter.

* * *

Tails flew down to the rest of the group who were waiting a few feet from his spy spot.

"So what's the deal up there?"

"Well, Eggman does seem to be the one how made that sound-"

"Yes! You owe me fifty rings Vector!" Sonic cheered.

"Dang it."

"You shouldn't have bet him."

Tails cleared his through, "That's not all." All attention was directed back to him. He seemed really nervous about whatever he was about to say. "There were two hedgehogs too, and they fit your distribution of your brother and sister."

There was a shocked silence that followed. Sonic looked like he was going to pass out.

All he could get out was, "What?"

"Metal was there too."

Knuckles rushed over to the hedgehog as he just about fell. Sonic had to grab onto him to prevent this. He held his hand to his hand, clearly shocked.

"They must think I'm robotized. How did they even get here?"

Knuckles held onto his friend, he was shocked, but clearly not as much as Sonic. "We should head in there."

"Wait."

Knuckles stopped as he was asked. Why wait though? His family was in danger. Shouldn't he be running in there head first without thinking like he always did?

Sonic released Knuckles, standing on his own two feet. "We need a plan."

"Never heard you say that before."

"Not the time Shadow." That got him to shut up. Sonic sounded like he meant business. "Here's the plan."

* * *

Just as the robotized Sonic was charging, it flew off to the side. Something had hit it!

That something was a pink hedgehog in a red dress, boots, and head band with a large headband. "Hey there."

There wasn't much they could say. That came out of nowhere.

Then a small six year old bunny ran up beside her with a small creature that the two foreigners didn't recognize. It was cute though.

One by one more came. A crocodile with headphones, a bee flying every which way, a serious looking chameleon, a black and red hedgehog, a bat with… uh, and a large purple cat with a fishing pole and frog.

"Where did he go?! Where did he go?!" the small bee was yelling.

"Shut it Charmy." The chameleon complained.

Sonia averted her attention away from the newcomers to catch a glance at the doctor. He was mad. And that is an understatement. He got a hold of himself very quickly but she saw it. He did not like these people. That meant she liked them.

The now calm looking Eggman gazed at the group on the ground, "I see you're a few people there. Did you leave or did they just leave themselves

No answer came, although Manic could barely see the bee and rabbit covering their mouths to keep from giggling out loud behind the crocodile. This just confused him more.

Sonia decided to voice the confusion, "Who are you guys? What is he talking about? Where did Sonic go? What is going on?!"

They got a couple sympathetic looks. The bat stepped up, "Don't worry sweetie. We're friends. You'll learn everything soon enough."

That didn't help.

A clanking metal sound came from behind them. The two siblings whirled around to see the robot version of their brother approaching.

Surprisingly, the little creature came behind it and hit it back in front of the hover craft. "Chao!"

Their minds went into overload trying to figure out so many things at once. How did Sonic get caught? Did they have a robotizer here? Where did these people come from? Why did they make Eggman so angry? What was the point of hitting Sonic there?

Then they heard the sound of a plane.

**How about that?! ;) ****Sorry about the thing with Rouge. I couldn't think** **of any adjectives besides... uh. Darn it! I did it again!**


	11. Disconnected

The hum of the engine helped calm his nerves. After he heard Sonic's plan he had plenty of butterflies in his stomach, enough for him and everyone else in the group. Particularly the part about meeting Sonia and Manic. The fighting didn't bother him a bit. He had been doing it since he was a little kid. But, meeting his brother's family…

'I should stop thinking about it. The butterflies are multiplying.' He thought, once again focusing on the skies.

Sonic had been keeping an eye on his little brother out of the corner of his eye. He was worried about him. He had started acting weird since he told them about the scene between his siblings and Eggman. He seemed nervous, maybe slightly guilty too. He couldn't understand what was going on in that head of his, but right now all he could do was watch him and comfort him when he was feeling down.

Knuckles was nervous too. Ever since his island teleported here he'd been wondering how they were. Now they were here and they weren't doing too hot at the moment. He was itching to help. But they had to stick to the plan. The plan that probably made no since what-so-ever.

Of course Sonic was even tenser than Tails and Knuckles combined. He had lost his family and now, out of nowhere, they were here. And getting attacked by Eggman and Metal (who they probably thought was him robotized).

He had searched high and low for his old home. But even travelling the whole world and back he couldn't find it. Not Mobodoon, not Robotropilis, nothing.

He did find some great friends along the way though. Tails, Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, even Amy. They were all really close to him. They helped fill the gap his siblings had left. It couldn't be completely filled though. Only Sonia and Manic could do that.

But now, a new space in his heart had opened, one for each of his friends. The Chaotix, team dark, Blaze, Silver, Knuckles, and of course Tails. That fox would always stay at the top. He was his best friend and little brother; that would never change.

"We're coming up on the battle ground." Tails's voice broke Sonic out of his thoughts.

"Thanks bro. See you down there."

"Be careful."

Sonic looked up at his little buddy, but his expression was unreadable at the moment. He smiled, "Course bud."

He ruffled the kit's bangs before jumping off the plane, aiming for a particular copy bot.

He landed with a thud and the sound of metal giving under his feet. Dust flying everywhere. (What was with this area and dust?)

He turned to where the doctor floated in his eggmobile, who was completely shocked. "What? Did you think I would miss? I gotta have some fun on my birthday." Sonic mocked.

That got the attention of the two hedgehogs behind him. Birthday? Could it be? How could it?

Sure enough, the dust cleared and if front of them was a certain blue hedgehog with red sneakers, his back turned to them.

Sonia fell to her knees crying her eyes out. She didn't even bother trying to use Manic as support. At this point she didn't really care. Sonic was alive! And he wasn't a mindless robot. He was her crazy brother who she had missed with all her heart. The brother who she was standing ten feet away from her now. Th brother she thought she had lost forever.

Manic had almost fallen over himself, but managed to stand. (Swaying but standing) He had a death grip around his medallion, he was probably about to start bleeding if he didn't stop soon. But he didn't. He stared at his brother with tears in his eyes. His bro was back! He was safe! Not a robot!

Wait a sec, the robot! Sonic had missed the landing by foot so he only landed on its shoulder. Luckily he did know this so when it tried to attack he simply ducked out of the way. "See you're still using that lame copy. How many times have you fix that thing up now?"

Hate practically radiated from the doctor's body. "You're- but you! UGH!"

The blue blur put his hands on his hips, "What? Did you think that little plan of yours with your lamed dragon robot thing would work? I have way cooler friends than you give credit for."

The crowd started cheering, agreeing with the statement. Cheese decided to come over and plop back on Sonic's head. The chao had guts, that's for sure.

That's when it snapped, "METAL! ATAAACK!"

"Heh. Finally." He started running, not at full speed but still one not to laugh at, the chao fell off in the process. Metal was right behind him, out for blood. He wasn't going to find it.

Sonic saw the cliff wall standing threateningly a few miles away and simply smiled, 'Perfect'. He sped up, which confused and worried his sibling until he started scaling the wall, it then turned to shock.

He saw that the bot was still on his tail, and a lot closer than he thought. It slung out it arm in an attempt to claw Sonic's arm off. It only wounded it though as he jumped away. He tried not to let any of his friend or family notice and they didn't. By now he could hide these things pretty well.

He stood face to metallic face with his copy, he looked around at the area they had landed. It was a small ways away from where everyone else was. 'Awesome. Now all I have to do is keep this thing busy until Tails comes back around.' He thought, getting into a fighting stance. He was going to have to do some hand to hand combat to occupy it. 'This should be fun."

Metal made the first move, lunging out at Sonic, aiming for his throat. The hedgehog's fast reflexes saved him as he dodged to the right, then, using his chance, round house kicked the bot in the back, making it fall face first into the ground.

That gave him a few more seconds. 'How long will it take him to get that thing and get back?' Sonic wondered as he prepared for the robot again, 'I guess I'll find out soon enough.'

His arm was burning where Metal had clawed him. He was straining it fighting. It was bleeding slightly quicker than before, but not enough for him not to be able to hide it from the others.

Metal Sonic eventually came off the ground. If robots could look angry, it definitely was mad. It lunged as soon as its organic double had come into sight.

'Here we go again.'

* * *

Meanwhile Sonia and Manic were watching, still in shock.

The rabbit came up to them. "Are you alright?"

Sonia smiled, (it wasn't entirely genuine, but it was a smile) at the small six year old. "Yeah, I guess so." She looked back to the battle.

"Mr. Sonic will be just fine."

Both hedgehogs turned to look at her. "You know Sonic?"

The pink girl with the hammer stepped forward, "We all do. He's our friend."

"All of you?"

They all nodded.

Manic didn't look completely surprised, "I'd believe it."

Sonia nodded, Sonic always did have a way with people. "So, can anyone tell us what's going on here?"

The hammer girl grinned, "Of course."

* * *

Sonic had knocked out Metal again, this time getting the robot's head stuck in a tree. He took this time to look over to where his family and friends were watching. He saw Sonia and Manic talking to Amy and Cream and sighed in relief. He could relax knowing his friends were helping his family out while he was busy with this cheap copy of him.

Speaking of which… Metal was out of the tree and on the attack. The blue blur dodged to the right barely avoiding another clawed, metal hand scrapping across his skin. Again.

'Ugh! Where is-!' his train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a biplane engine. "Finally!"

Without warning he ran, full speed, away from the battle. Running over Metal in the process. He ran up a tree, projecting himself into the sky, then was caught by the Tornado. "What took you guys so long?!" Sonic yelled over the wind, his injured arm turned away from the pilot.

"There were a lot more Buzzbombers than I expected," came the reply. "Sorry Sonic."

"It's fine buddy. Doesn't matter now anyway. Deploy it!"

Tails did as he was told and pushed a small button on his dash, releasing a missile. A very special missile. This was designed just for Metal Sonic. Sonic had remembered Tails working on it a while back since fighting the copy bot was getting repetitive now a days. He had picked it up after he dropped off Sonic. It hadn't been perfected yet but this wasn't really a time to be picky.

The projectile worked perfectly. First it sent out an electrical current, stopping Metal from fleeing (it was magnetically charged so it would only target metal or any other robot in the area). Then it hit. It wasn't the most complicated thing in the world, but Sonic understood how it worked, which is more than he could say for some of the other inventions the fox created.

Metal had been destroyed. Both its legs had been flown somewhere far away in the blast. The body had been dented beyond recognition, and only one of its arms had been able to stay attached. Something still bothered Sonic though. "Go land by the others."

Before Tails could ask what he was doing, Sonic jumped off the plane. Startling his siblings as he saw through the corner of his eye.

He walked up to the replica, and sure enough he had been right. It was still functioning. Those red glowing eyes were still glowing bright. He felt the eyes of everyone on his back. They were waiting for him to do it. And he did.

He stomped down on the robot's neck as hard as he could, disconnecting its head. The red lights went dead.


	12. This really is the best

**Eggman Hater: You're actually pretty close. I feel after thinking her brother was dead for so long she wouldn't start immediately yelling at him. Notice how I say 'immediately'. ;) My view on Sonia is she's the girly member and mature. She can scold her brothers a lot but that's because she cares for them. she also can be very funny. (They all are as we've seen on t.v)**

**Insaneshadowfangirl: oh may gosh! Where'd you get a Manic plushie! :D **

He picked up the robot's head, looking into the black sockets that had once held the glow of life. If you could really call it life.

Sonic felt the hateful gaze coming from the doctor to his right and turned to meet his eyes. He couldn't actually see his eyes, no one really has, but he could imagine what they looked like. Especially right now.

"Why you…! You little….!"

Sonic cocked an eyebrow up at Eggman. "You going to finish any of those sentences?"

He growled in response. Orb bot retracted into his ball form and cube bot jumped off the animal containment unit and back onto the eggmobile next to orb bot, then also retracted. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU HAVE GOTTEN IN MY WAY FOR THE LAST TIME! I WILL GET YOU!" he started to fly away, "HEDGEHOG!"

Sonic sighed, then using the head as a soccer ball, kicked it to hit Eggman's engines, making him smoke and swerve out of control. They could hear yelling from the vehicle as it spun out into the distance.

"Does he have to say that every time?"

Suddenly he had arms gripping him tight around the waist. He looked down to see his sister crying so hard it looked like rivers were flowing down her eyes onto his chest. He didn't mind though. He put his arms around her, propping her up slightly. Then Manic ran up, panting but smiling, and joined the hug.

The Sonic Underground was back!

* * *

They stood together for several minutes just enjoying each other. They could have stayed there for hours. They had been separated for such a long time that they had lost hope of ever seeing each other again. Should have known better.

They did eventually tear apart. Sonia was still crying and it was easy to see Manic had moisture in his eyes too. As did Sonic.

He couldn't believe this was real! "Are you guys okay?"

They nodded, still shaken up, "A lot better now." Sonia gripped Sonic's hand.

He smiled and squeezed his sister's hand. "Good." Then he remembered the audience and looked over to his friends, who all had goofy grins plastered on their faces, (well, except Shadow). "Wipe those silly grins of your faces." He was smiling when he said it so of course it had no effect. It just made everyone laugh. Including his siblings, "I take it you introduced yourselves right?"

Manic beamed at his brother, "Yep."

The bushes nearby rustled, making them jump. Sonic figured out who it was very quickly though, "Took you long enough Knux."

The red echidna walked out of the plants, brushing off leaves, and obviously not paying any attention since he hadn't noticed Sonia or Manic. "What took me so long was about fifteen dozen robots. Next time you come up with the plan I would like a bigger job than destroy the robots Eggman calls." He looked up and froze.

"Man you're slow."

"Knuckles!"

The guardian jogged over to his old friends with a large smile on his face, "Hey! Long time no see!"

Manic was practically jumping for joy, "Man that thing with the chaos energy transporter thing did send you here."

Both Sonic and Knuckles whirled around to him, "Chaos energy?" they asked in unison.

The green hedgehog's expression changed to confused, "Um… Yeah?"

Sonic held up his hand, a sign to drop it, "Nothing. We'll talk about it later." He started walking toward his friends, dragging Sonia along. "Come on, let's head back to the party. I've got lots to tell you guys."

Unfortunately Sonic had forgotten about his arm. That is until he walked over to his friends.

They made it over to the group, who despite Sonic's scold, still had goofy grins on their faces. Tails had landed the plane behind everyone and was now at the front of the group. Sonic ruffled his bangs when he came up to him, the fox saw a splotch of red when he did.

"Sonic…"

"What is it buddy?"

Tails slowly stepped up to him, "What happened to your arm?"

He went ridged. 'Dang it.'

Sonia moved to look at the arm in question. Her eyes widened, "Sonic!"

Tails was running back to the Tornado, almost there, "I think there's a first aid kit in the Tornado!"

Sonic took a step to stop him, but remembering his sister holding his hand stopped, "Tails! I'm fine. It's no big deal."

Tails had found the first aid and was on his way back to his friend, "Nice try Sonic. I've known you long enough by now. I can see it in your eyes, plus it's bleeding a lot. It hurts pretty bad, doesn't it?"

Sonic winced partly because he was right and partly because, well, he was right. His arm felt like it was on fire, the blood streaming down it added to the effect.

"Sonic! Why didn't you say anything! You're hurt! Bad! When did that even happen? When you were fighting that weird robot version of yourself?" Sonia's grip on his hand tightened as she yelled at him. He knew it was more out of worry than anger. "Ohh… that's a lot of blood."

The injured hero griped his sister's hand tighter and gave her a small smile, trying to show her that he was fine. She stopped yelling at him, though she still didn't seem happy about his arm, and Sonic looked down at the fox who was currently wrapping his arm in gauze.

"Do you always have to be a tough guy when it comes to this stuff?" he asked, securing the gauze in place.

"Yes."

That did get a small chuckle out of the kit but it was obvious he was way worried. "I'm fine buddy." Sonic tried to reassure, "I went through that battle with this and I'm still standing."

"You went through the entire battle with that?"

Sonic winced at Sonia's raised voice. "Ummm…" he tried to think of something to say, but for once he came up blank.

"Why did you do that?"

This he knew how to reply to, "I was making sure he didn't try to attack you guys."

She instantly fell silent. She didn't expect that. She should've. "Ummm…"

Sonic laughed, "Its fine sis. I get that speech a lot from these guys." He pointed back to his circle of friends standing behind them. "Amy tends to bring out the hammer." He rubbed the back of his head, remembering.

Pretty much the entire group cracked up at this, Amy just started turning the said hammer in her hands, making Sonic a bit nervous. Even Sonia had smiled at the thought of her brother getting a hammer to the head by the pink hedgehog.

"Done."

Sonic looked down at Tails's handy work. The white gauze was already partly red, but did seem to be slowing the flow of blood. And it did feel slightly better. "Thanks Tails. Let's get back to the party, shall we?"

Manic hooked his arm around his brother neck, "Sounds cool to me. We could use some chill time."

"Sweet." He grabbed his brother and adopted little brother and started pushing them toward the picnic. "Let's go before you find any other injuries on me."

Sonia looked at him with fake suspicion (most of her anger was gone), "You don't have any more do you?"

"Probably."

"Knux!"

Another spout of laughter started up and Cheese took her spot on Sonic's head. Sonic rolled his eyes to the sky, smiling.

'This really is the best birthday ever.'

**Reunited at last! Thx for all the reviews guys! Keep im kumin. (If you can not understand that I'm sorry. It's supposed to be slang) **


	13. Party Time!

**Hey guys. Sorry bout the wait. Fanfic wasn't workin for me when I tried to upload. Sooo... extra long chapter!**

**ultimateCCC: Of course! She has to! *evil grin***

**ABCSonicKirbyWarriors: I said Cheese was a girl because of Sonic X. In one of the episodes Cheese gets lost down the river and they constantly call her a girl in it. I haven't really heard the games give Cheese a gender either. Don't worry though. I'm trying not to have to say she or he with Cheese as much as I can. I will call Cheese a her for the next couple of chapters maybe until I can clearly find a gender for Cheese. (:**

**Insaneshadowfangirl: Yay! Thank You so much. *Hugs new plushie* **

**So many reviews! *Squeals* Thx a lot! ENJOY! :D**

It didn't take long for them to get there. They were all some of the fastest mobians you'd ever meet. Sonic still insisted on running despite his injury. This worried his friends but they knew that there was probably no way to stop him.

The clearing was exactly how they left it. With the small picnic table full of snacks and the large tree with a good amount of its leaves on the ground from Sonic and Shadows race.

Vanilla was sitting at the table and stood up as she saw the group's return. She saw the gauze around Sonic's arm and, her motherly instincts kicking in, grew very worried and went to him first, "Sonic dear, are you all right?"

Sonic looked down at his arm then back at the mother rabbit with a reassuring smile, "I'm fine Vanilla. It's just a little scratch."

Manic came over and lightly punch his brother on his good arm, "'Little scratch' my butt."

He grabbed Manic in a head lock, "Whatever."

"Come on man let go!"

"No way!"

The two started laughing. Sonia came over to watch the two, and since they weren't paying attention….

"Hey! No pushing!"

Sonia bent over with laughter. The two boys were now sprawled on the ground. Sonic had released his head lock on Manic. They both looked to each other and nodded, smiling. Then they tackled their sister to the ground.

"Hey!"

"Now we're even sis!" Sonic said through his laughter.

She crossed her arms, trying to be cross, but couldn't help a smile.

"I'm guessing these are your brother and sister?"

Sonic had almost forgotten that Vanilla was standing there, "Yeah. Vanilla, this is Sonia and Manic. Sonia and Manic, this is Vanilla."

They scrambled off the dirt and exchanged hellos.

Rouge flew up over everyone's heads, "Hey, where did Omega go?"

Everyone looked around the meadow, but no one could see him.

"Omega?" Sonia asked.

"Yeah, another friend. We didn't take him with us cause we thought he might blow our cover." Sonic answered.

"Blow your-?"

"Found him!"

They all turned toward Tails's voice. The large robot emerged out of the shadows of the forest he was in.

Sonia squeaked slightly and jumped toward Sonic. Manic just gawked.

"It's alright." He reassured, "That's Omega. He's friendly."

"Greetings."

Sonia still looked slightly unsure. Manic thought it was really cool and went up to the robot.

Sonic tried to think of something that would help his sister relax. Then it came to him, "You remember ART?" she nodded, "Omega's almost exactly like him. He was created by Eggman but after being locked up in some room, rebelled against him." Sonia's expression seemed less tensed and more interested, "Better now?"

She nodded, "Yeah."

"Good," he started directing her towards the large bot, "We can introduce you then."

* * *

After all the introductions, they all continued with the party. Sonic and Vector were having a chilidog eating contest, Sonia, Amy, and Cream were talking about clothes, and hair, and so on, Manic was comparing note on theft with Rouge, Knuckles was talking to Tails, and Shadow (of course) just stayed at the edge with his arms crossed and his back turned, ignoring the rest of the party.

"Oh yeah! Fifty dogs! That means you owe me fifty more rings Vec!" Sonic cheered.

"Oh come on."

Espio sighed, "You should really stop betting against him. You're never going to win."

"Yeah. Sonic always wins. Always always always." Charmy added.

"Thanks for the support you two," sarcasm dripping off his voice, "Hey! Wipe that smirk off your face!"

Sonic did indeed have a smirk on his face, and Cheese (who had plopped back on the hedgehog's head earlier) copied the expression. Charmy and Espio thought it was hilarious and laughed. Vector thought it was funny to but he restrained himself from laughing. He just smiled instead.

"Heh. I think I'll go see how everyone is doing." Sonic stood up to leave. "See you later."

He headed toward the girls but when he heard what they were talking about turned toward his brother. "Hey guys."

"Sup bro."

Sonic put his arm around Manic's shoulders, "Two thieves together? Should I be worried?"

"You know I don't steal from family." Manic said smiling.

He started poking his brother "Yeah yeah. Just don't give her any ideas"

"Aw, come on Blue."

"Sorry Rouge, but I think I know you well enough by now. And I think Knuckles would agree."

She put her finger on her chin, pretending to think about it, "I guess you're right. Knucky never was big on my jewel hunting."

Sonic rolled his eyes grinning, "Mostly because the jewel you hunt is his."

"Fair enough." She admitted.

"You try to steal his chaos emerald?" Manic asked.

Rouge looked confused but Sonic knew exactly what he was talking about, "Actually, it turns out that that emerald isn't a chaos emerald. It's the master emerald."

"Master emerald?"

Sonic nodded, "Yep. It's the most powerful relic in the universe."

"Woah."

"It's also one beauty of a gem." Rouge added, her eyes sparkling.

"Don't even think about it bat girl."

They turn to see Knuckles and Tails coming up to them. Knuckles went up to Rouge with a suspicious look in his eyes. Tails stood next to Sonic.

"Hey guys."

Tails smiled up at his best friend, "Hey. Knuckles overheard Rouge talking about the master emerald and got suspicious so he came over here."

"Chao!"

Sonic reached up to pet the chao, "I hear that pal."

They all giggled. Well, except for Knuckles and Rouge, who were having as argument and completely oblivious to the others. Rouge was using her usual charm and Knuckles his usual temper.

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Tails asked, gazing at the two.

"I guess," he took a starting pose, "Hold on tight Cheese."

"Chao!"

He took off, instantly boosting past the sound barrier, creating a sonic boom. Everyone grew quiet. Sonia and Manic's eyes grew to the size of saucers. 'Oh, right. I haven't told them about how much faster I am now.'

He skidded to a stop back with his friends, who were all gathered together now. Sonia and Manic were at the front. "How did you do that?" Sonia asked.

Manic came up beside her, "I don't think I've ever seen you do that!"

"I just got faster I guess." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "I forgot to mention that, didn't I?"

Manic grinned, "Maybe."

"Heh. Come on, let's have some cake."

* * *

They were all around the table, enjoying the cake and each other. Cheese had a cupcake and was eating it happily. Sonic felt the crumbs on his head but didn't really mind.

"Oh my gosh!" Sonia suddenly burst out.

"What is it Sonia?" Sonic asked.

"Cyrus. Everyone back home is probably worried sick!" Sonia put her hand to her head.

"That's right!" Manic realized when his sister pointed it out. "We really need to call them."

"Do you have any way to call them?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah," Manic showed his communicator on is wrist, "Cyrus made it for us. It shows the call to everyone in freedom HQ."

"Cool. Call them up." Sonic stood up, excitement glowing in his eyes, "I wonder how everyone is."

Manic and Sonia looked at each other, each smiling from ear to ear, "Let's find out."

* * *

Cyrus was pacing around freedom HQ. Sonia and Manic hadn't called since they left. They should've been in the unknown land by now. Were they in trouble? They should have gone to the oracle first. Then they would have known what to expect there. Did they get stopped before they could reach him?

"Cyrus relax," Trevor tried to calm him from his seat nearby, "You're starting to act like Sonic when he gets worried. I'm sure they're fine."

The tense lion sighed, "Maybe but-"

A loud ringing sound interrupted them and the entire HQ grew silent.

"Told ya." Trevor said.

Cyrus ignored him and ran over to answer the call. He push the respond button and released the air he had been holding in tension when he saw his two friends faces appear on the large screen. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah Cy. We're fine. Everything okay over there?" Manic asked.

He was answered by the cheers of all freedom HQ. Trevor came up to stand next to his friend. "I'd say we're just fine."

"So what's going on over there?" Cyrus questioned over the roar of the crowd, "You find any leads on Sonic?"

"Is _this_ a good enough lead for ya?"

That wasn't Sonia or Manic's voice.

* * *

Sonic had jumped in between his siblings when he heard Cyrus ask about him and hooked his arms around them. He looked down at the small screen and saw Cyrus and Trevor in complete shock. He snickered at their expressions, "Hey guys. Long time no see." They could here all of freedom HQ cheering from behind them. "Heh. Miss me?"

Cyrus grinned at the blue hedgehog, "Of course." He noticed the changes to the hedgehog, the longer spines, the leaner body, and most of all his eyes, "When did your eyes turn green?"

Sonic blinked then crossed his eyes in a fake effort to look at his eyes, making his friends in Robotropilis chuckle, "I'm not really sure."

"I think it was around the time with the Chaos incident." Tails inputted.

"Oh yeah!" Sonic remembered, "Thanks buddy."

"Who's that?" Cyrus looked around the screen trying to find the source of the voice.

Sonic signaled for his friend to come over to them, "That's my friend Tails. Stop being shy and get over here." Tails was walking slowly, obviously nervous and shy. The blue blur just smiled and walked over to the fox. "Come on."

"Wha-? Hey!" Sonic had started pushing him toward his family, "Sonic! Cut it out!"

"Then stop being so shy and get over there." Sonic retorted, reframing from laughing.

"Okay! Okay! Stop pushing!" Tails complained.

Sonic snickered but did stop. He put his arm around him to try and comfort the young fox. "Yo Knux! You too!"

The echidna got up from his seat and walked with the two. Tails was still anxious but not as much as he was. Sonic had an entire past before he met Tails. Tails had just been a little kid with no parents. He barely had a past, Sonic had basically raised him. How would everyone from Sonic's past react to him? Would the like him?

"Relax Tails," the fox jumped at the hedgehog's voice, "It'll be fine." The fox hadn't realized that he had started tensing up. Sonic, having his arm around his friend, felt this and could easily guess what he was thinking.

When they did make it over to the two, Sonia moved to the side so that they could all see the small monitor. Tails was scratching the back of his head nervously, even with his big brother there he couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy.

"This is Tails." Sonic introduced, "Tails, meet Cyrus and Trevor."

"Hi."

'Man Tails really is nervous' Sonic thought, slightly nudging the fox in an effort to get him to relax. "And you should remember Knuckles."

The echidna came into the picture, "Yo," he rested his elbow on Sonic's shoulder.

"So the floating island did get teleported too." Cyrus looked deep in thought.

Tails looked over to Knuckles, "Floating island?"

"Right, forgot to mention this. It's not called the floating island anymore," he looked kind of awkward saying it, "Its Angel Island now."

"Oh." Manic thought for a moment, thinking over the name, "It's a lot more creative than 'the floating island' at least."

Knuckles smiled and gave a nervy chuckle.

Trevor decided to cut in, "So Tails," the fox tensed, "How long have you known Sonic now?"

He thought for a minute, "Since I was little, I can't remember exactly when."

"I think you were about four or so." Sonic suggested.

Tails shrugged, "I guess."

"How old are you now?" Cyrus asked.

"Eight." Tails answered.

"Wow. You look older." Cyrus observed.

"He acts older too." Sonic added, ruffling the fox's bangs.

He laughed while he fixed his bangs, "I act older than you."

The blue hedgehog locked his friend in a head lock, "Whatever!"

The kit giggled as he struggled against his older opponent, "Yep! Now let go!"

"No way Tails!"

A thought suddenly came to Trevor, "Tails? Where did you get that name from?"

The two stopped wrestling each other, Sonic let go of the fox. Tails warily gulped. "From these," he turned around to show his two tails that had been the main focus of his bullying when he was young, "Sonic gave me the nickname since I didn't like my real one too well."

The two on the other side of the receiver stood in shocked silence for a moment. Tails's ear had slightly dropped and he was looking out in the distance, away from the communicator screen. Sonic put his hand on his shoulder to try and relax the twin tailed fox.

"That's pretty cool."

Tails snapped his head to the communicator. Sonic smiled, and looked over to his surprised little brother. "You didn't think everyone was like the kids on Westside Island did you?"

"Westside Island?" Sonia asked.

"That's where I lived before I came here. Most of the kids there bullied me. Then I met Sonic." He looked over to said hedgehog who was grinning down at the fox. "I saw him running and followed him cause I thought he was cool." he scratched his nose, embarrassed, "I was four." He added.

Sonic resisted a giggle hearing him try to explain his reasoning. He tousled the fox's bangs around, making him smile.

Sonia grinned at the two, then looked down at the communicator, "Dang it! Low battery."

Manic looked at the small battery symbol at the bottom of the screen. It had a small explanation mark in the middle. "She's right. And I left the charger in the van. Which is in front of the Oracle's cave at the moment."

"What type of battery does it have?" Tails asked.

Manic blinked, confused. "Um… Cyrus?"

Cyrus paused for a second, trying to recall "I think it's a C.S 27."

"I have one of those at home. That's what Sonic's uses." Tails pointed to the communicator in question.

The blue blur rotated his wrist, looking at his present. "I didn't even know there were different types of batteries."

They cracked up this. Even Sonic laughed. Then the communicator around Manic's wrist started beeping. "Uh. I think we need to go."

"Sure thing Manic." Cyrus said, "Good to have you back Sonic."

"Good to be back Cy."

Then the communicator went black.

* * *

The party continued for a few more hours, with games and eating. They were constantly laughing throughout the time. Sonia and Manic fit in perfectly with all Sonic's friends. Manic even competed with Vector some. And (surprise surprise) Vector lost. Sonic constantly wrestled with Manic and Knuckles all through the day.

But eventually the sun started to dip into the horizon, signifying the arrival of night. Rouge and the rest of team dark left first, followed by the Chaotix (Charmy had basically passed out from the sugar rush he had and from buzzing around so much). Cream fell asleep on her mother's arm soon after, Cheese had also fallen asleep on top of Sonic's head, where she had stayed throughout the entire day. Sonic had gently lifted the chao off his head and handed her to Vanilla as they left. Knuckles also left to go back to his island. How he planned to get there with no plane, Sonic didn't know.

Tails started to yawn, starting to grow tired.

"Getting sleepy there buddy?" Sonic asked. The only reply was a drowsy nod from the fox, "Let's head home then." He turned to his siblings, "Come on, you guys can crash over at our place."

Manic hopped up from his seat at the table, "Cool."

'Our?' Sonia thought also getting up, 'Does Sonic stay with Tails and his parents?'

They all walked there together. Sonic couldn't carry all of them and run after all. Mystic Ruins wasn't too far from Green Hill so it wouldn't take long. They mostly talked about the freedom fighters and everything that had happened since the incident. The parts about Sleet not changing anything confused Sonic the most. That dude was more snake than wolf. Then he heard about their latest mission when they learned he was alive. Then he understood. He kept his mouth shut though. He didn't want to upset them, especially after such a great day. (For the most part anyway)

After the eleventh story they finally reached the small workshop, dusk had taken over the area so it had a light orange tint. The place was exactly as they left it. There were still nuts and bolts scattered around. Tools were in every place you could think of. (Almost. How old are you!?)

"Sorry 'bout the mess," Sonic picked up a screwdriver that had been laying on the couch, "We weren't expecting guests."

"Don't worry," Sonia came up and sat on the arm of the couch, "We weren't expecting to be guests."

"Heh." The blue hedgehog looked around the room, "Hey. Where did-?" then he saw Tails walking up the stairs, already half-asleep, "Night buddy."

His reply was a loud yawn as the fox made his way to his room. Sonic shook his head in amusement. He went back to get the blankets for the two, "You guys sure you don't just want to take my room?"

Manic helped his brother with some of the larger blankets, "Nah bro. we're fine out here."

"Yep. Right now I could hibernate in a cave. A couch sounds a lot more comfortable though." Sonia plopped down on the cushions.

"Yeah." Sonic looked down at his sister, "It's good to have you guys back."

Manic put his arm around him in a half-hug, "You too bro."

Sonia got up and kissed her brother on the cheek, "Yeah, I missed you."

Sonic wrapped his arms around them, drawing them closer, "Missed you too," he let loose his own yawn, "I guess I should hit the sack too. It's been a long day. Nights guys."

"Night Sonic." The two said in unison.

"One of you guys should say jinx." He started up the steps, hearing Manic yell jinx and Sonia say something back. He didn't hear what she said but he knew it was probably something pretty rude.

He laid in bed thinking about, well, everything. He thought about his time back in Robotropilis. The incident. About the first time he met Tails. About how much he had grown into a little brother for Sonic.

'My entire family is together,' he thought, 'Well almost. We're missing one person'


	14. A Day in the Park

**Hey guys! What's up?! Sorry bout the slight delay. Schedule + Girl = no writing time**

**Eggman hater: Yes it does add up in the end. And I did put that thing in where Manic asked about chaos. Thx for that! :D And he will tell them about his adventures. He does in this one but it's really not focused on and you don't really hear which ones he told them. They are the less known though. No major adventures without actual dialogue! But I will tell you this about those stories: They have more in common than what Sonic points out later. ;)**

**ultimateCCC: *face palm* I should have known that! Dang! Sonic X needs to get it's facts straight**

**Also, one more thing to stall you (I mean tell you!). This is going to sound really mean but I want to hear you guys' worst nicknames for Tails. When they meet Sleet and Dingo (you all knew it was coming) Sleet needs to have some really mean names for Tails. If you read my one shot Confrontations you will see I ran out of names quickly. The winners will get a shout out in the story and a cookie!**

**Now to the story! **

Sonic drowsily walked down the stairs. He had woken up bright and early even though he went to bed so late. He wanted to see his brother and sister, to make sure it wasn't just some crazy dream.

Sure enough, the two hedgehogs were fast asleep on the couch. He smiled to himself and walked into the kitchen to start breakfast.

* * *

Tails woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. 'Sonic' he realized. He was still half asleep but hunger overcame sleepiness and he dragged himself out of his bed. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he made sure to tip-toe as quietly as he could as to not wake up their guests.

"Hey there buddy," Sonic said as he saw the fox enter, "You hungry?"

Tails yawned, "Yep."

"And tired too apparently," he put the bacon down in front of him, "Here ya go. Save some for the rest of us."

This got a short chuckle of him, "I'll try."

Sonic shot his head, grinning as Tails started to dig in. Then he heard a noise from the living room. The hedgehog stuck his head out the door to see his brother and sister starting to wake up. "Morning sleepy heads."

Sonia looked up at her brother, "Morning," she stood up and stretched, "That smells really good."

"Come and get some then."

Manic made his way to the kitchen, "No chilidogs?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and sat down in a seat next to Tails, "I don't eat chilidogs 27/7 for your information."

"You still eat them a lot," Tails added in between bites.

"Yeah yeah," he took some eggs for himself, "You guys gonna eat or not?"

Sonia took a seat next to Sonic, "Gladly."

* * *

As they ate Sonic started telling stories of his adventures and the places he had visited.

"What about that Chaos thing that Tails mentioned yesterday?" Manic asked through a mouth full of eggs and bacon.

"To put it short," Sonic answered as Manic got hit for talking with his mouth full by Sonia, "A god of destruction broke out of the master emerald and destroyed a good part of Station Square and we stopped it."

The two stared awestruck for a moment, but Manic broke it very quickly, "Cool!"

Sonia seemed more worried, "What happened to the city?"

"Don't worry, its fine," Sonic assured her, "The city recovered really quickly, plus it happened a really long time ago."

"And your eyes?" she added.

"Ummm…" to tell the truth he wasn't entirely sure how it happened.

Luckily Tails seemed to have an idea, "I think it might have had something to do with the master emerald. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I'm pretty sure it had to do with his exposer to it."

Sonic shrugged, "What he said."

"They do match the color." Sonia said thoughtfully.

Said emerald eyed hedgehog finished off his breakfast, "Anyway, how about we head to Station Square for the day?"

Tails also cleared his plate, "I'm game."

Sonia jumped up, "Sounds fun!"

Manic joined her, "Totally!"

Sonic and Tails got up as well, "Let's go then," Sonic rushed out the door then popped his head in again, "You guys comin?"

Tails giggled and ran out with Manic right behind him, Sonia followed more slowly, 'Where are Tails's parents? Are they at work or something?' she wondered.

"Come on Sonia!"

"We're waiting!"

She smiled, "I'm coming! Don't you guys have any patience?"

"Nope," came multiple voices in union.

* * *

They arrived in the city and two jaws dropped. Station Square was a busy little city with people everywhere. Talking, shopping, and just having fun. With buildings as high as the clouds and cars driving up and down the streets busily. It was like a different version of old Mobius.

"You guys can close your mouths now."

They did as they were told and looked over to their grinning brother. "This place is amazing!" Sonia stated, looking around at the new sites.

"And there's a lot more to see," Sonic started to walk ahead of them, and backwards.

"You're going to run into something," Tails was looking into some of the store windows.

"Haven't yet have I?" Sonic smirked.

Tails just rolled his eyes. The two hedgehogs walking frontward smiled. Sonic was just as cocky as always. Even with walking.

"Mr. Sonic!"

Sonic turned forward to see Cream the Rabbit running toward them with Cheese the chao. "Hey there Cream," he got attack by a small light blue blur, "You too Cheese."

"Chao!"

The cream colored rabbit stopped in front of them, "Hello Mr. Sonic."

"What'ch ya doin down here?"

"We were shopping with Amy," she answered.

Sonic looked slightly nervous all of a sudden, "Is she here?"

"She's still in the store. She should be out any minute."

Sonic gave an exhausted sigh with Cheese placing himself up on his head again. Manic came up to him and started poking at this brother, "What? Aren't you two dating?"

"No," he answered quickly, "She just has a really big crush on me."

"Really?" Sonia pet the chao on Sonic's head, "She told me you two were dating."

"A _really_ big crush."

"Sonic!"

Amy ran up at the sight of the hedgehog. Sonic sighed, "Hey Amy."

She reframed from tackling him in a hug, "What are you guys doing out here?"

"Showing these two around the city," he motioned to his siblings.

Amy ran over to Sonia, "Oh! I know the perfect place to show you!" she started jumping in excitement, "There's a really good hair stylist not far from here. I have to show you!"

Sonia's eye lit up, "Really?" she looked over to her brothers and Tails, hesitant to leave them.

"Don't worry 'bout it sis," Sonic reassured her, "Go on. We'll meet up later."

The pink hedgehog hugged him tightly, "Thanks bro!" she turned to the two girls, "Let's go!"

The guys watched them run of giggling and talking. "Girls," Manic muttered, smiling.

"Heh," Sonic put him arm around him, "She doesn't get to do this often. Let her be."

"Yeah, I know."

"Hey, Sonic. Can we go to the park?" Tails came up beside the hedgehog with pleading eyes.

"Sure thing buddy," he turned to where he remembered the park was, "Over there right?"

"Actually, over there." Tails pointed north of where Sonic was looking.

"Oh."

"You're not a very good guide," Manic teased.

Sonic in turn head locked his brother, "Would you rather walk around by yourself and get lost?"

"As oppose to getting lost with my brother?" Sonic tightened his grip, "Any day."

He let go of the green hedgehog and warmly smiled at, "Come on. Let's head down there. There's this chilidog stand that's really good."

"So you do still have an endless appetite for chilidogs. We just had breakfast!" Manic remembered him endlessly eating chilidogs anytime he saw a stand, even during missions.

"You have no idea."

"Ha ha," Sonic brushed Tails's bangs purposely into his eyes, "Very funny."

"Thank you."

Manic and Tails laughed and even Sonic had to smile. They kept this up all the way to the park. Laughing and mocking each other, being boys. Not caring about Robotnik or Eggman. Sonic paused in his laughing, he would eventually have to tell them. But not now, not when they were so happy and not when they just came back together.

"You okay bro?"

His brother's voice shook him out of his thoughts, "Yeah. Just lost in thought I guess."

"You gettin' philosophical on me?"

"Not even close."

"I can confirm that."

"Whatever!" he tackled the fox in a blue blur.

"Hey!" Tails was giggling like crazy as he wrestled around with his best friend on the grass. Luckily they had arrived at the park so it wasn't too out of place.

"Dog pile!" Manic joined in the tussling, landing on top of the two with Sonic at the bottom.

"Again?"

When they all finally untangled themselves from each other they burst of laughing and panting on the ground.

"Man this place is beautiful," Manic thought aloud, "I wonder why Robotnik never tried to take over this area."

Sonic turned his head to look at his brother lying next to him, "Don't know, but I'm glad he didn't," he looked over to Tails on the other side of him, "There's some pretty cool people over here," the fox grinned in return.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the sun beaming down on him, the gentle breeze tugging at his fur, and the soft grass that he laid on.

His brother watched him lie there and smiled to himself. He'd never seen him so relaxed before. Sonic usually was running around, never taking a break. Now here he was, taking a nap in the middle of the park.

Then someone else came up, "I've never seen you so calm and not hyper and running around."

Sonic squinted one eye open, "Hey sis."

Said sister had about a dozen bags hanging off her arms and her hair didn't look as tangled and messy as when she left. Amy and Cream were right behind her. "You seem awfully peaceful there."

"Yep," Cheese plopped himself down on the hedgehog's chest and snuggled into his fur, "You guys done already?"

"It's been an hour and a half," Sonia and the rest of the girls sat down on the grass "We thought you guys might be getting impatient."

"Really?" Tails sat up, "Doesn't feel like that long."

Sonic yawned but didn't get up, "Yeah. It feels like we just got here. How long have we been here?"

Manic folded his arms under his head, "I don't know. Forty minutes maybe."

"What have you guys been up to?" Amy asked.

"Well," Sonic thought for a minute, "We started walking to the park, teasing each other and whatnot. Then when we got here we started wrestling with each other and after we laughed for a bit we chilled. Then you came along."

Sonia rolled her eyes affectionately, "Boys."

Sonic looked over to Manic with a teasing glint in his eyes. Manic only replied with a slight shove on his arm. He hit the still red gauze. "Oh man. We should have changed out your gauze this morning."

All eyes turned to his injured arm. Sonic cautiously, as to avoid disturbing the chao on his chest, reached over and removed it completely.

"Sonic, are you sure-?"

"Don't worry 'bout it sis," he gazed down at the now exposed arm. It was slightly pale due to the lack of oxygen compared to the rest of his limbs. The cut itself seemed to have closed and was a slight shade of pink, slightly inflamed. Some blood was still crusted on parts of his fur but he quickly scraped it away. The scar wrapped halfway around his arm. He knew it would fade though. It didn't seem that bad to him.

"Oh man," his siblings were less impressed, "Are you sure we shouldn't get more gauze for it?"

"Nah," he put said arm under his head, careful for the spines, "I've had worse."

"Worse?" Bad thing to say.

"Nothing," he tried to brush the subject away, "It's nothing."

"Doesn't sound like nothing," Manic was now sitting up as well.

He had failed to mention his encounter with death on the ark and just about every other adventure or section of an adventure were he almost died. And the werehog incident too. That would be hard to explain.

"Okay. So I've had a few close shaves with death," he looked to Tails and his other friends for support. None was provided, "I'm fine now though. It's not like you guys haven't ever been hurt during our missions."

The two tried to think of a good comeback but nothing came up. He had a very valid point.

"I know how you feel," he continued, "I nearly had a heart attack every time you guys were in major trouble. But it's different for me. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if anyone got hurt because of me or I could have stopped them from getting hurt. That goes double for all you guys. I'd rather me get hurt and all my loved ones be safe than them be hurt while I just sit on the sidelines doing nothing."

Sonia leaned forward so that she was looking directly into his eyes, "And we don't want you getting hurt," she kissed him on the forehead, "We've been on the sidelines for years. Now that we're back you can't go and get yourself killed. Got it?"

He reached up and moved with some of her hair that was hanging down in his face, "Got it."

* * *

They spent the rest of the day playing in the park, Sonic made a run back to the house for the frisbee that he and Tails would often bring to play with. Sonic often showed off with his speed when catching the disk. Tails decided not to use his tails to fly, as that might seem like cheating.

Cheese took a ride on it every once and a while and would always fly a little awkwardly after the frisbee had been caught.

The boys would often tackle each other to keep the other from taking the flying disk. A girl would just pick it up while they were tussling about.

They did go to the chilidog cart that Sonic had mentioned to Manic for lunch. Luckily for Sonia they had more than just chilidogs. And all the girls for that matter.

Overall they spent the entire day just playing and having fun. No missions, no robots on patrol, just a day throwing around a frisbee and just being the kids they were.

* * *

On the way home, after saying good-bye to Amy and Cream, Manic brought up an inevitable subject, "Eventually we're going to have to go back."

Sonic nodded, "Yeah, I know."

"How though," Sonia stared down at her feet as she walked, "The oracle teleported us here. We have no way back," she looked at Sonic with a sad look in her eyes, "Unless you maybe found the way back…"

"No. No," he quickly corrected her, "If I had I would have come back to see you guys," then he started to look depressed, "I ran all around the world and I couldn't find you guys." He felt a slight brush beside him and looked to see Tails giving him an encouraging smile.

Manic put his hand on his shoulder, "Course you did bro. We still can't get back though."

Then one of Tails's amazing ideas struck, "Do you guys remember were you landed when you were teleported?"

"Um. Yeah. Yeah I think so," they were obviously confused.

"I might be able to track were you were transported from if I bring out the right equipment for the readings," the fox looked like he was making a mental list of all the things he would need.

"Really?" Sonia asked.

The kit nodded. She looked over to Sonic for conformation, "Eight year old prodigy," he explained. "And I know how we can teleport there."

"And Eggman?" Manic seem almost reluctant to ask.

Sonic smiled back at him, "My friends will be able to hold down the fort while I'm gone. And I can teleport back when I need to. I can spend as much time as I want back there!"

Both of them lit up like the city lights did at night, "Awesome!"

He got hug attacked by his sister, "You can see everyone again!"

"Yep," he looked over to Tails, "And they can meet all my friends."

The young fox beamed up at him. Sonia and Manic seemed to like the idea too, "Yeah! This will be great!"

Sonic threw his fist into the air, "Look out Robotropilis, here we come!"

**I feel like I used a lot of lines in this one. Oh Well. Thx for reading! :)**


	15. Allies

**I've already got some awesome name for Tails from the contest. Er.. I guess it more awful than awesome. Keep 'em comin guys! Don't you want a cookie! (View profile or last chapter for more details)**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Stella:*sneaks up behind insane, grabs plushie and runs around the room laughing maniacally.***

**Thanks to all my reviewers. Now... ONWARD! **

Bang! Dang it! That probably wasn't the best thing to drop.

Sonic picked up the piece of equipment that he had dropped and turned it, checking for any damage. He didn't notice any. Tails would be able to see it if he did anyway.

He brought it over to where the fox was busy setting up all his equipment for the readings, "I heard you drop it Sonic," the hedgehog jumped at the recognition, "You didn't break it did you?"

He shook his head, then realizing he was still looking down at his work said, "No."

Sonia was hovering near the mechanic, helping the fox whenever he asked, "Clumsy as always."

The 'clumsy' hedgehog decided to ignore his sister's comment, "Where did Manic go? He was supposed to be helping us."

"I think he made a run out to the house," Sonia propped up a piece of machinery that was slightly lopsided, "He should be any time now."

"And he is," they all turned to the green hedgehog's voice, "This the right thing?"

Tails brought himself out of his work and gazed up to the piece of equipment he carrying, "Yep," he pointed to spot a few away from where he was sitting, "Put it there please."

"Right," he trudged to the spot with the heavy device placing on the ground, "That would have been a lot easier if I had my hover board."

Sonic snapped his fingers, startling the people around him, "That reminds me! Hold on a sec."

He dashed off, letting a rush of wind envelop all behind him. "He messed up my hair!" Sonia complained.

"Wonder what he meant when he said I reminded him of something. What's he doin'?"

Tails smiled to himself. He had a good idea about what Sonic was getting. Manic had talked about his hover board…

Suddenly a gust of wind swept the area, messing Sonia's hair up even more, "Sonic! Stop running around!"

"Who said anything about running?"

"Huh?" the two looked up to see Sonic floating on a board much like Manic's hover board but longer and blue. Sonic himself had a pair on sunglasses placed on his head. "Cool!"

"You did get your extreme gear," Tails looked back up from the equipment.

"Extreme gear?" Manic was already up to Sonic, examining the gear.

Sonic jumped down and held out the board so that his brother could see more clearly, "Yeah. This one is customized just for me. We had a couple adventures with these things."

"So let me guess. You the champ?" Sonia came up to view the gear alongside her brother.

"Yep. Although Jet would like to disagree."

Tails laughed. The others just gave him a blank look, "Who?"

"Just someone we know," he walked over to Tails's spot, "Another speed demon like me."

"Got it!" Tails's sudden outburst made all three hedgehogs jump. "Sorry guys. The equipment is up and ready to go."

"Sweet! Start 'er up!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Shouldn't we tell your friends we're leaving?" Sonia asked.

"Don't worry," Sonic reassured her, "I left a note in the house. We're all set."

* * *

Back at the house a loud knock echoed from the door. It repeated itself multiple times before the one responsible slowly creaked the door open.

"Sonic? Tails?"

The intruder cautiously made her way into the house, looking around for her friends. She made her way to the living room and saw a small sheet of paper on the coffee table. She picked it up when she saw that it was signed by Sonic.

Dear everyone,

Me, Tails, Sonia, and Manic are going to back to Robotropilis. I'll get back whenever I can. Hold down the fort while I'm gone okay?

~Sonic

P.S Amy I know you're probably the one reading this, please reframe from using your hammer on me when I get back for not bringing you. And tell the others 'bout me leaving too. Thx!

"Hmph!" She already had her hammer out.

* * *

"Alright. I think I've got the area you guys were teleported from," the prodigy turned to Sonic, "Your turn."

"How you plannin to get us there bro?" Manic asked while he played around with his brother's extreme gear.

"Come over here and I'll show you." They did as they were told and walked over to the hedgehog, "Grab onto my arms," they did so, but with a confused expression painted on their faces. He took out a blue emerald from his quills and focused on its energy, feeling the power flow through him "Chaos Control!"

A bright light enveloped them, sending them to their location. Actually a few feet above their location. When the light faded they all thudded onto the floor.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry! Haven't done that in a really long time." Sonic had face planted into the hard stone floor, "I think my nose might have been flattened to my face." He rubbed the sore spot.

Tails giggled at his friend, he had landed on his behind so he wasn't hurt as much. Sonia and Manic laughed too. They had also landed on their butts and thought it was hilarious that Sonic hadn't.

"Hey, bro," Manic had finally stopped laughing, "How'd you do that?"

"It's a trick I picked up from Shadow," he stood up and stretched his limbs, "It's called chaos control. I haven't used since that adventure though, so I'm a bit rusty."

"I can see that."

"Ha ha," he gave Manic a push, "Very funny. Let's see you do it smart mouth."

The smart mouth smiled mischievously, but the smile quickly faded when he tried to figure out how he did it. 'That light. It was almost exactly the same as that day.' He looked over to his brother. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with him. This 'chaos control', was it how Sonic had been taken away from them? He moved his gaze over to his sister, the same conclusion was reflecting in her eyes.

"So, are we in the Oracle's cave?"

Sonic's voice brought him out of his trance, "Um, yeah. I think so."

Sonic gave him a sidelong look, "You okay bro?"

"Yeah. Just thinking."

He raised an eyebrow, but not in a disbelieving way. More like a mocking way, "And you were getting on to me about thinking too hard."

"Greetings."

The four started spinning, looking for the voice. "He seems to have a thing for greeting without seeing."

At that moment he appear righting the middle of them, surrounded by a green light, "It adds to the effect," he turned to Sonic, "It's good to see you again young hedgehog."

"You too Orc."

"You've come to see your friends again, correct?"

He blinked, "Not to sound disrespectful but, DUH!"

"So respectful."

He gave his sister a death glare, making her laugh. 'Note to self,' he thought 'Death glares do not work on siblings.'

"You do realize you will have to go back."

Sonic snapped his head back to the prophet, "Yeah. Yeah I know." His eyes widened, 'Does he know about Eggman?'

The Oracle, as if reading his mind, nodded. Not enough for his siblings to notice but enough for him. "Do you mind if I talk to you in private?"

The hedgehog quickly shook his head and then followed him to an area that they could talk. He heard Manic behind him asking, "What's that about?"

When they got to the secluded section of the cave the Oracle wasted no time getting to the subject, "You are going to have to tell them eventually."

"I know!" he covered his eyes with his hands, "It's just- I don't know how to tell them. We just found each other again. I don't want to ruin it for them."

"I understand how you feel," he placed a hand on the teen's shoulder, "Take your time. But not too much time."

"Not too much time?"

"You will see soon," he directed back to the group, "Now, you should enjoy being with your family."

He noticed how he didn't add 'and friends' to his sentence. He's never met Tails before. How would he know how close they- "You've been watching me."

The prophet smiled and gave one nod to the hedgehog, "You've gotten smarter Sonic."

The blue blur smirked, "Thanks. For the complement and for watchin' over me," he started making his way back but stopped, "Did- Did my mother watch too?"

The Oracle gave him a warm smile, "Yes. Yes she did. Whenever she could."

He smiled, "Well, I've got a picture album full of pictures from when she couldn't," he thought of something, "Um. She didn't see the whole werehog incident, did she?"

"The what?"

"Never mind!" he dashed back to his friends, leaving an astonished oracle behind. "Hey guys."

"Hey. Why'd he want to talk to you?" Manic asked upon his arrival.

"Nothin' big," he started hopping foot to foot, "Let's get goin'. It's freezing up here!"

"Well, maybe if you wore more than sneakers and gloves," Sonia started toward the exit.

"Right. Should've brought a scarf," he made Tails and Manic laugh at least.

Sonia thought it was funny, but it was also irritating. Basically a description of the blue hedgehog. She kept her mouth shut; shaking her head.

The snow was just as high as when the two left. Minus the snow storm.

Manic's hover board was right where he left it. When Sonic got a mischievous glint in his eyes Manic stopped him, "Already did it. Got double the snow piled back on me."

"Dang," he looked over to their sister who was talking with Tails. Then Manic threw a handful of snow in his face, "Hey!"

The green hedgehog ran off, grabbing his board and ridding toward the van. Sonic set off after him showering Sonia and Tails in a blanket of snow. "Sonic!"

He really didn't notice her yelling at him. He caught up to his brother and tackled him to the ground and then proceeded to shovel snow onto his head. "Cut it out!"

"No way, Manic! This is what you get for that snow in my face!"

A layer of snow suddenly enveloped the two and they looked up to see Tails snickering up above them. Sonic rolled his eyes. Manic gawked, "You can fly?!"

Tails slowly floated back down to the hedgehogs, "Didn't we tell you?" he looked over to Sonic, "We did mention it didn't we?"

"Uh," he thought for a moment, "I don't think we did buddy."

Sonia had walked up and was staring just like Manic, "How did you do that?"

"I just spin my tails," he turned so they could see, "See? I take Sonic up all the time."

The two looked to Tails then Sonic and back again, disbelief obvious. Tails was only eight, how could he support a sixteen year old using only his tails?

"They don't believe us," Sonic noted, "Shall we show them?"

"Let's."

Sonic backed up a few feet then jumped up into the air where Tails was ready to catch him, which he easily did. Sonia and Manic practically had heart attacks, until he flew sixteen feet up into the air. "Woah! That's awesome."

"Have you always been able to do that?"

"As far back as I can remember," he dropped Sonic down by where he had jumped from, "It comes in handy a lot."

"Including pranks," Sonic threw a snowball at his best friend, "Now we're even."

Manic chuckled and ran over to the van, "Come on! Let's get this thing movin'!"

"To Robotropilis!" Sonic rushed to the van leaving a spray of snow in his wake.

Sonia (given up on yelling at him) growled and followed the two with Tails right above her.

After a couple of hours of driving and thirty minutes of Tails asking if he could modify the van to go faster they arrived in Robotropilis.

Sonia and Manic were sitting up front in the seats with Sonic behind them looking over the cushions at his old home. Then he saw a patrol of Swatbots. He looked back at Tails, who was taking a nap on the small foldout bed. He slowly shook him awake, "Hey Tails. Wake up buddy."

"Huh?" the fox looked up at the hedgehog bleary eyed, "Sonic?"

"I need to talk to you," Tails seemed confused, but sat up to listen to his older brother, "I want you to stick close to me while we're in the city, okay?"

"Um…" the fox had a blank expression, "Why?"

Sonic looked back over his shoulder to make sure his siblings couldn't hear him, he would never hear the end of it if they did, "This place is really dangerous. When I was younger I was really scared, it took a long time for me to adapt. Certain aspects about it still get to me every once and a while," he paused, "Especially the thought of you getting caught and robotized. So promise me you'll stay close to me."

Tails nodded, "Okay Sonic. I promise."

"Good," he grabbed his young friend in a half hug, "Now why don't you come see Robotropilis."

Tails was astonished by what he saw. All the buildings were made of solid gray metal, and the roads looked like gray concrete. The only color were the rare decorations, the vents, which were a rusty red, and the trash and such lining many of the alleyways. The sky was gray with pollutants. There was a lot of gray. "Kinda reminds me of Chemical Plant Zone with less color."

Sonic thought for a moment, "Oh my gosh! It does! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Chemical Plant Zone?" Sonia turned in her seat to address the two.

"Yep. It's an area (we call them zones) that's basically a huge plant flowing with all kinds of weird chemicals. As the name suggests," he gazed over to Tails, "We went there on out first adventure together."

The fox grinned up at him. And then a huge bump made them both sprawl to the floor. "Ow!"

"Sorry guys!" Manic yelled from the driver's seat, "Lot of pot holes."

"Just as good a driver as always Manic," he left a hint of sarcasm into his voice as he pulled himself off the floor.

"Uh-huh. I don't remember you being the best either." Manic retorted at his brother.

"Neither of you could drive well," Sonia shouted over the two, "That's why I always want to drive."

"Yeah, you were the best driver I guess," Sonic admitted.

"Yeah."

"Especially since Manic just passed Freedom HQ."

"Wha-?" the drummer stepped hard on the brakes, making the two in the back fall once again.

"Nice."

"Heh," Manic started backing up, "Hey Sonic, could you scan for Swat-butts?"

"Sure thing!" he leap to his feet, "Come on Tails. You're gonna love this!"

He walked up the section of the wall that held their hidden computer and pushed a button to reveal it. Tails's eyes were wide with excitement as he saw the computer pop out of the wall. "Cool!" he ran up to get a closer look.

Sonic laughed at the intrigued fox's reaction, "All clear Manic!"

"Thanks," he started pulling back into the secret passage that led to their secret base, "You ready to see HQ again?"

"Ready as I'll ever be!"

The door slid open to revel the center of the freedom fighters network. Everyone was running around and busy doing their different jobs. The Sonic Underground stood in the doorway looking for a particular lion among the crowd. Sonic was slightly behind his two siblings so that no one could see him.

Sonia was the one to spot their friend first, "Cyrus!" the lion was standing next to the projection table; he looked like he was calculating something on the clipboard he was holding.

"Hey guys! You back already?" he waved them over. "Sonic still in the unknown land?" he obviously didn't see the hedgehog behind them.

He made himself known very quickly, "Nope! And that area in called Green Hill Zone by the way."

"Sonic!" forgetting his work, he ran up to his old friend, "You're back!"

"And better than ever, Cy," he gave a high five to his ecstatic friend, "and I brought a friend too."

Tails stepped out from behind the blue blur and waved back at him. The butterflies had come back.

"Tails right?" Cyrus held out his hand to the fox.

Some of the butterflies dispersed, "Yeah," he took the hand and shook.

"Where's everyone else?" Manic interrupted, looking around the base.

"They should be around here somewhere," he joined Manic in looking around.

Sonic reach up to his medallion, he hadn't taken it of since he put it back on at the party, "Maybe instead of looking for them," he summoned his guitar, "We could get them to come to us." He let loose a solo from his guitar.

Sonia and Manic eagerly reached to their own medallions and summoned their instruments, "What should we play?"

"I got that covered. Just follow my lead!"

He started up the music, hard and strong,

"Rollin around at the speed of sound

Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow

Can't stick around have to keep moving on

Guess what lies ahead, only one way to find out

Must keep on mobbing ahead. No time for guessing follow my plan instead

Trusting me, what you can see

Take my lead, I'll set you free!"

Trevor came up among the crowd, wave at the hedgehogs like crazy,

"Follow me. Set me free

Trust me and we will escape from the city

I'll make it through, follow me, follow me

Set me free

Trust me and we will escape from the city

I'll make it through prove it to you

Follow me!

Oh yeah!"

Mindy now came up and started dancing with all the others around them.

"Danger is lurking around every turn

Trust your feelings, got to live and learn

I know that somehow I will make it through

Got no other options, only one thing to do

I don't care what lies ahead, no time for guessing only follow my plan instead

But nothings straight, no matter what that may be

Take my lead, I'll set you free"

All his old friends were here, dancing and enjoying the music. He made sure to sing louder now,

"Follow me. Set me free

Trust me and we will escape from the city

I'll make it through prove it to you

Follow me! Follow me!

I'll make it through!

Oh yeah!"

The three took a bow as their song end and the crowd went nuts with cheers. Trevor ran up to Sonic, "Hey Sonic! It's great to see you again!"

"You too!" he had to yell for him to hear over the roar of the crowd.

"Where did you learn that song?"

"Yeah! That was awesome!" Manic had come up and almost made Sonic fall face first onto the floor, "I've never heard that one."

"Just something I picked up in Station Square." 'After being hunted down by the government and almost killed multiple times," he added to himself. That adventure had been slightly hectic, but it did result in some really cool songs!

"Station Square?" Cyrus asked, "What's that?"

"Oh, it's wonderful!" Sonia burst, "It's just like old Mobius! It has boutiques and hair salons-"

"Oh boy. Here she goes," Manic leaned against the van, getting ready for what he predicted would be a very long gush about the city.

"Oh shush," Sonia glared back at her brother.

"I'd love to hear about it!" Mindy said, interrupting the stare down, "It sounds delightful!"

"Great!" the two walked off while Sonia started telling her friend about the city, Amy and Cream, and basically everything she saw in Station Square and Green Hill.

"Heh," Sonic shook his head in amusement, "I'll give you the short version without all the hair salons and clothing stores." And Sonic gave the run down about his new home, about his fights with Eggman, GUN, and about all his friends. "And that's not even half of it."

"Man," Trevor stared at the hedgehog in respect, "You've been fighting that guy all by yourself?"

"Not completely myself," he moved his gaze over to Tails, looking at their van's engine with Manic, who was pointing out all its different parts to the fox. The mechanic was entranced by the machine, since it had parts he had never seen before. "I've had Tails and all my friends to back me up."

"It's like you made your own freedom fighter group back there," Cyrus leaned back in his chair.

"I guess you could say that," Sonic smiled back at his friend, "And I'm sure they wouldn't mind helping out some fellow freedom fighters."

"Sonic," Cyrus sat up, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if you guys ever need any help we'll be up here in no time," he stretched his arms back behind his head, "They'd probably love to see this place," he remembered Shadow, "Most of them anyway."

"Wow, thanks Sonic!"

The hedgehog held out his fist for his comrade, "No prob, Trev," his fist made contact with Trevor's, "You've just got some new allies."


	16. Robotize

**SO BUSY! ARG! I have had so much stuff goin on lately. Of course one of them was an anime convention but hey, I DRESSED AS AMY AND BLAZE AND IT WAS AWSOME! Real life aside (Sorta. I don't think conventions count as real life.) NEXT CHAPTER!**

**And BTW, I will start using the mean nicknames for Tails in the next chapter. This isn't the end of the contest. I would just like to tell you this so if you write in any suggestions you can start looking for them. Some of you can be really mean. In this case it's good. Thx to all submitters so far! **

**werewolf lover99: I will spread the word. Right here in fact. SOAP is back and is trying to shut down fan fiction. You have been warned! (What kind of name is SOAP? Do they just really need a bath or something.)**

**Eggman hater: You have a lot more fangirls then those two Sonic. *eyebrow waggle* So many Manic plushies!**

**insaneshadowfangirl: A. She also has a hammer Sonic. She is a creepy stalker who's pink and has a hammer. The most dangerous type. B. Where do you people keep all these fairground sized plushies?! Because I would like to try it. ;)**

**I don't know if I need to do this but I'm gonna guess yes because of those SOAP guys who need a bath. I do not own Sonic or any other characters, they belong to SEGA.**

**Reviews are gold rings, and I want enough for SUPER SONIC! LET'S DO THIS! **

* * *

The outside was dark and silent. Nothing stirred except the wind through the roads. Stead streams of light rained down from tall light posts, towering high over the streets. The only thing to show life was indoors.

Inside the safety of their hideout, three hedgehogs and a fox settled down in the warm living room, glad to be together.

Tails was already asleep, using Sonic as a pillow. His tails twitched, a sign of dreaming. He was out like a light.

The others were wide awake. Sonia was sitting in the dark green armchair that stood next to the couch. Manic had relaxed down on the floor across from Sonic and Tails. They had gotten back after hours of storytelling and basically just having fun with their friends. Like the day in the park but a more 'if you go outside you'll get caught and become a mindless slave' setting.

"So," Manic sat up straight, eager to start things off, "We told you about what's been goin' on here. Now it's your turn."

Sonia quickly agreed with him, "Yeah. You didn't tell us much at your party and the road trip. What you been up to, bro?"

"Lots of things," where could he start? So many adventures so little time. "How 'bout I start with my very first adventure?" the two nodded vigorously, "Well, the first place I ever explored after the incident was Green Hill Zone. That area we had my birthday party in. I ran around for quite a time before I was interrupted by some robots, Motobugs. They just tried to run me over, but still, they couldn't be up to any good. I destroyed them and when I turned to leave I heard chirping. Eggman puts animals in his robots as living batteries!" Sonia shook her head next to him, showing disapproval with the bots. "The little flicky that had been trapped in it lead me to were Egg-head was gathering up the animals and putting them in this containment capsule. After fighting him (he had a wrecking ball on his hover thing. A wrecking ball. Don't know why he picked that but, hey. His attempt to kill me, his decisions) I opened the capsule and a bunch of animals jumped out. One of the rabbits grabbed my medallion so I kept it in my quills. I went through a bunch of different zones before I defeated him once and for all. Of course he came back, that's when I met Tails." The hedgehog softly ruffled the fox's bangs, trying not to wake him up.

Sonia leaned forward, "He's pretty young for that type of stuff don't you think? He's young enough to be in Sanctuary."

Sonic didn't like that idea. He couldn't think about anyone but him taking care of his little brother, so he changed the topic to something they had always bothered him about, "Hey, I started out just as young. When I went to go live with Uncle Chuck."

The two's eyebrows shot up. Was he really going to talk about this every time they tried to get him to talk about his adoptive 'parents' he would always change the subject. (Which made it the perfect way 'to' change the subject).

"I don't remember everything since I was so little when it happened but I remember my dad, I mean adoptive dad, grabbed me out of bed and dragged me to the front door," he had his audience hooked, "He told me to rev as fast as I could. He usually told me not to rev since it was easy to lose me and I would break things a lot when I did." He let the memories bubble up from the depths of his mind, "My mom told me they loved me and I ran into the forest. Then I heard a bunch of noise from back at the house and when I turned back the entire place was up in flames. I didn't see our dog, Muttski, so I guess they either got im or he ran off Chuck showed up and I sort of broke down." He closed his eyes, the memories of his childhood coming back. The chilidogs, the attempts to get him in the bath, his homemade guitar he would play. It all washed over him in one huge wave.

A hand was placed on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see his sister with her hand resting on his shoulder and his brother right behind her, both with encouraging (and slightly apologetic) smiles.

What he didn't know was there was another spectator to his story. Tails had started to wake up when he had started telling the story. It took all the fox's strength not to release the built up moisture in his eyes, giving up his position. He couldn't believe Sonic had gone through that at his age. The same age that Tails had been when he meet Sonic. He wanted to talk to him about it, but as sleep drifted upon him once again, he decided to wait till morning.

That morning seemed to come a lot shorter that night. The sun broke through the span of buildings, covering the gray city in an orange-red tint.

Tails stirred soon after the blanket of light covered the city. He noticed that he was still on the couch with his hedgehog pillow. Sonic must have not wanted to wake him up by moving.

The fox yawned, apparently causing Sonic to stir from his slumber. "Hey there buddy. Sleep alright?"

"Yeah," how to bring up that story from last night. Might as well just be upfront, "Hey, Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Last night, after we got back from freedom HQ and I fell asleep. I kind of woke up at some point and I heard you tell a story." Sonic stayed quiet, gazing calmly at the fox. "It was all true right?"

He slowly nodded, "Yeah, its true. They were taken to get Robotized, I haven't seen them anywhere in the city though." He say how Tails's ear dropped and his shoulders slightly slumped, "Hey, at least my dog is out there. Muttski's probably tearin up some swat-butt or somethin'. Like owner like dog."

The fox chuckled softly at the hedgehog's joke. By now he knew his little brother. He knew how to make him laugh and cheer him up. It was a sixth sense to him.

"Hey guys," the two turned to see Sonia and Manic walking toward the couch, "What's up?"

"Not much," Sonic leaned back and laid his arm on Tails's shoulder.

The fox visibly relaxed, then yawned, "What time is it?"

Manic turned toward the clock, "Err. 7:30 AM."

Tails yawned again and plopped down on Sonic's lap. Manic sat down right beside his brother. "How can you be so tired? Last I saw you were_ out_."

"He's always tired in the morning," the blue hedgehog gazed down at the young fox in his lap and smiled, "He probably could sleep for an entire day and still be tired."

"Well I remember you not being much better," Sonia leaned over the back of the sofa between her two brothers.

"Heh. Can't argue with that."

A loud beeping went off behind them making the drowsy kitsune alert and the hedgehogs curious. Sonia walked over to the large screen hidden in the wall and brought up the cause of the beeping.

"How many hidden computers do you guys have?"

"Just those two," Sonic looked over to his brother, "Right?"

Manic nodded, "Right."

"Guys!" Cyrus's voice made the three turn, "We have a big problem."

Sonic, Tails, and Manic instantly jumped up and ran to the monitor, "What's wrong Cyrus?"

"As we speak, a group of citizens is being transported for robotization," he took a deep breath, stabilizing both his breathing and his thoughts, "Guys, it's the biggest robotization group ever."


	17. Transport

**New chapter! Yay! Get ready for some bullying cause this is the first usage of the Mean Nicknames for Tails Contest. The winners get a big sugar cookie with blue icing today. :3 **

**I need to add a rule to the contest. No cussing please. I would like to keep this away from the T ratings. Thx.**

**And I have been informed that the name is SOPA not SOAP. *face palm* They probably still need a bath though.**

**Eggman hater: Don't ask guys. Just don't ask.**

**Insaneshadowfangirl: Patience Insane. It will come. It will come very soon ;) **

* * *

The van zooming by at top speed. They had to hurry. The biggest group of Mobians Robotnik had ever captured was headed to the Robotizizer. They had to get to them before it was too late.

"How did they nab so many people?" Sonic questioned the small communicator his brother was wearing. Cyrus had stayed in contact the entire time after he gave the news to give directions and explain just what in chaos happened!

"Apparently a few years ago one of the planes for transporting Robotnik's prisoners went out of control and were never heard from again," Cyrus's voice came in fussily through the watch, "The passengers were deemed dead, but it turns out they were alive and made a small- village I guess you'd say," a sound like paper rustling could be heard from his side, as if he was gathering notes. "They were trying to keep a low profile so that Robotnik didn't try to go after them again. A lot had to leave family behind. Sleet and Dingo must have stumbled on their village somehow and captured them."

That's when something struck Sonic's mind. Maybe it was wishful thinking but… "Cyrus, just how many years ago was it?"

"Um," obviously surprised by the question the lion paused, "Well. I think you'd be about seven or eight so-"

He was interrupted by a groan from Sonic.

"Sonic?" Cyrus, who couldn't see him, sounded very worried and confused by the loud groan from his friend, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," he took his face away from his hands, "I'm just going to be sick is all."

"Are you guys near water or something?"

"No," Sonia assured him, glancing at her brother who was now holding a steady poker face, "It's nothing."

Tails had also spotted it and he was now even more anxious to go faster, 'I wish they had let me fix up the van so it would go faster." Tails thought as he looked out the front window. The terrain was just a vast plain. Nothing but the land and the few trees dotted every once and a while. There was also a dot in the distance ahead of them. Wait, a dot? "Guys! Look! I think it's the transport!"

The three leaned in closer to the window, trying to get a better view, "You're right, Tails!" Sonic could just see the figure of the vehicle and the trail of dust behind it, "Nice job!"

Tails beamed at his big brother's praise. He pointed it out to the others since they were having problems locating it. As soon as they found it Sonia hit the gas, making them zoom forward.

They soon were driving level with the transport. It was about five times as big as a normal transport vehicle with dark purple paint. There was a small window in the side. Probably so that the passengers could get a last glimpse at the world they were about to leave. Cruel and a bit kind at the same time. But mostly cruel.

Sonic inclined forward to see through the small frame into the van. He was half expecting it too. What he saw, were his adoptive parents, sitting across from the window with their heads down. And it broke his heart.

He moved to the back of the van, next to the door, ready for action, without a word. Everyone could tell what was wrong. Unfortunetly they didn't have time to talk about it. Right now they had to get those people away from Sleet and Dingo.

Manic grabbed his hover board and jumped out of the van with Sonic right behind him. Sonic bolted off somewhere to the right of the van while Manic boarded over to the van. Making sure that the people inside would see him, he starting hooking up the transport to start hijacking it. As he worked the controls a bright laser passed right by his nose, temporarily blinding him.

When the stars faded away the hedgehog looked up to see the bounty hunters Sleet and Dingo on their flat hover bike. Sleet had his laser gun pointed toward the prince, "Well well well. Looks like we've got a little rat on our hands."

"Not rat. Hedgehog. Wrong species." Manic kept a calm appearance although he probably had alarms going off in his head.

"Well rat or hedgehog you're still about to be roadkil-!"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. He had just been blindsided by a certain blue blur, "Geez. What's with all the villains not knowing the difference between hedgehogs and rats?"

"You've been called that before?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it later." Sonic was running in front of the transport, keeping an eye on the two bounty hunters as they gathered their bearings.

When they did they were very mad and very shocked. "What? How is this possible? How are you possible?" Sleet was slightly red with anger, waving his gun around like the maniac he was.

"First question is obvious. Second question: my sibs found me. Third question: you're too young and I don't want to have to explain that."(And I would have to rate the story T if I explained).

The wolf gave a deep growl from deep in his throat. Sonic had definitely kept his knack for annoying his enemies. He had had enough. He shot at the blue hedgehog, missing by a mile. Several miles actually. Sonic had dashed behind them as soon as he had pulled the trigger.

"Do remember nothing?" the two turned to see a kick aimed right at their faces.

* * *

Sonia ran to the door, giving Tails the controls, and took out her laser gun. "We've got to hurry!" She blasted down the door to the transport and leaped in.

All attention in the vehicle was on her. Most stayed near the walls, not trusting the hedgehog. There were two though, who seemed to have enough courage to try, "Who are you?"

She put on a warm smile to help relax the passengers, "My name is Sonia. I'm a member of the resistance. My brothers are out there too. We're going to get you out."

Suddenly a rat from the back stood up, "How do we know we can trust you? How do we know you're not one of them? All we want is to see our families! For this nightmare to end!"

"Justus!" the male of the braver two snapped, making the rat sit back down, "We all want to see out families. I left behind a son! We had to leave him in the care of his Uncle Chuck when he was eight! I would do anything to see them again."

It clicked. 'So that's why Sonic groaned. He figured out his adoptive parents were on here!' Sonia cleared her throat to bring the attention back to her, "Your son wouldn't happen to be Sonic the Hedgehog, would it?"

The two stared at her in stunned silence. Of course they broke it fairly quickly, "You know him? Is he alright? Did he join the resistance?"

The princess quickly interrupted them as to not get more questions, "Yes I know him. He's fine. In fact he's right outside."

She stepped aside so that the two could look out the door up to where said hedgehog was running, waiting for the two bounty hunter to make a move.

They were in tears.

* * *

Tails was watching the battle in front of him, looking for a chance to jump out and help. Driving the van was a bit boring for someone who was used to always being in the action. He found it too. Some hover bots were sneaking up on Sonic, who had his attention fixed on the two villains in front of him.

'This thing has an auto pilot, right?' he thought as he scanned the controls for any sign of the button.

"Right next to the steering wheel!" he heard Manic yell from outside, "We've never tried it though so be careful."

He didn't know how the hedgehog had known what he was looking for but he gratefully took it. He located the small button, locking the van into its current course, then jumped out and spun his namesakes. He destroyed the bot in a flash, alarming both hedgehog and bounty hunter. When he slowed enough to be seen as the fox he was he got a thumbs up from Sonic and some very confused looks from Sleet and Dingo.

"What on Mobius?" Sleet looked like his brain was about to fry from all the processing he was having to do today, "Who invited this freak?"

Sonic's fists clenched in an effort not to knock the guy of that hover board he was riding. Wait. Why should he have to hold back from these guys? He ran up as nothing but a blur and knocked into the hover board with a homing attack, making the two flip end over end for a good twenty feet or so.

When he was back to running at normal speed (for him anyway) he looked over to the fox to see his expression was straight, as if he didn't feel anything from the insult. But Sonic knew his little brother. The far off look in his eyes. The twitch in his tails as he flew. The tightened muscles. Tails was thinking about Westside Island.

"Tails," the fox kept looking forward, "Tails, look at me." The fox obeyed but Sonic half wished that he hadn't told him to. He could practically see the kids mocking the poor fox in his eyes. Mutated monster, abomination, waste of good oxygen. All those name where going around in his head. And Sonic was going to put a stop to them. "Don't listen to those jerks, alright? They're just trying to get under your skin. Like what I do when we fight Egghead. Get him mad enough he'll start acting without thinking."

"Like you running up and homing attacking them?" Good, he was starting to relax.

"Yep. Exactly like that." The fox giggled at his friend. He could always count on him to make his feel better. "Now what do you say we beat on these bone heads then get back to HQ?"

Tails nodded, his cyan eyes glowing once again, "Yeah! Let's do it!"

The hedgehog jumped up and grabbed onto the fox's hands and they flew skyward before the bounty hunters had stop spinning. "They're heads over heels for us definitely."

The fox giggled again and flew higher. The two villains finally stopped spinning to find no one there. They looked left and right and even under their board. Every direction but the one they needed to look. "Hey, Sleezeball! Up here!"

Sonic jumped out of his friend's hands and freefell toward the villains, curling up into a ball. He landed right in the middle, knocking Dingo out of the way first, and split the board in two, causing the two to tumble onto the dirt.

Coming out of the ball he turned to run backwards so he could get a good look at the bounty hunter as they sat in the dust. Tails came up and the two exchanged high-fives and Sonic ruffled the fox's bangs.

* * *

Sonia came up to the two watching the victory party of the friends, "He really is a wonderful guy. I've never known him to be un-happy or low spirited. He has a heart of gold. You did an excellent job raising him."

"Thank you. I just can't wait to see him."

Sonia smiled at the two and looked back out the door, "Wait. Who's driving the van?"

**The bullies of the day are BigFanOfUser sonictails bros for mutated monster and Insaneshadowfangirl for abomination, freak, and waste of good oxygen. Keep sending in more meanness. I'm running out of names and I know you guys are very creative. Just look in the reviews! ;)**

**Thx everyone!**


	18. My son the prince

**insaneshadowfangirl: *Facepalm* Poor Manic.**

**Eggman hater: Oh geez. Tell her it's you Sonic! Tell her it's you! Werehogs are people too! Run Manic, Run!**

**werewolf lover99: That'll work. :)**

**I swear I can make a separate story based solely on these reviews. I'm going to be obligated to do this now, aren't I?**

The two were plastered to the window. Sonia watched, smiling. Sonic was lucky to have parents like these. And still have them. She and Manic had their entire family taken away. They didn't have anyone else. Sonic did. He had two amazing parents who had, by some miracle, escaped Robotnik. That was a feat in its own.

She also looked out to see her brother running back to the van with Tails in tow. He looked like he was still weary of enemies, or he was just nervous about seeing his parents again.

Probably the later.

* * *

Sonic had about a million thing running through his head. They actually survived! What could he say? How was he going to explain being royalty? Would they even believe him? How would they react to Tails? And Sonia and Manic for that matter.

They came up to the van driving along and hopped in, then Sonic leaned against the wall and slowly slid down to the floor. He had one major headache from all this thinking. Everything was running together in his head. And it ran at supersonic speed.

"Sonic, you okay?"

He looked up at his friend and gave a small smile, "Yeah I'm fine. Just a couple million things goin through my head."

Tails sat down next to the hedgehog, "It's not going to overload or anything right?"

Sonic laughed at the fox's joke, "Funny." He gave the fox a shove, "Thinking's not my thing okay?"

The two cracked up. At least the tension had gone now. "Hey Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could tell me some about your adoptive parents?"

He blinked. That was not what he expected. "Um. Sure."

The fox, sensing the confusion, blushed, "It's just that, well…"

"It's alright buddy. You don't have to explain." He ruffled the kit's bangs. "We lived out in the woods. I remember there being a small pool like spring right outside the house."

"And you weren't afraid of it?"

Sonic gave him another shove, "Ha ha. Unfortunately yes. I really don't know why I'm scared of it. We're getting off topic anyway." The fox was trying to contain his laughter (and might have been failing at it). "My dad was the one who introduced me to chilidogs. My mom apparently had some special recipe or something. They helped me build a homemade guitar that I always carried around with me. My Uncle Chuck would come over and I'd always jump on his back and we'd play all day. I would run around a lot too, but most of the time I broke stuff so I'd have to go outside."

"You still break stuff when you run."

"Yeah, but those are robots. Not TVs."

Tails almost fell over laughing. Sonic did too.

"Hey guys. What's so funny?"

Manic was standing in the doorway, holding his board to his side. Sonic gave him a weird look them turned toward the front of the van, "Sonia's in the transport vehicle right?" the two nodded, "Then who's driving?"

"It's auto pilot Sonic. It's driving itself." Manic assured him.

"Wait. We had auto pilot?"

The drive went by quickly for both vehicles. The transport was focused on Sonia who was telling the stories of the three siblings' adventures. Although she did forget to mention the part about them first meeting up. Most of the stories were a type of request. One of the passengers asking about the land they used to call home.

On the underground van the time was passed with the radio. They went surfing the stations, rocking out to all sorts of different music. Manic was always beating his drum sticks, Sonic was playing the air guitar, and Tails was bobbin his head and jumping around. It was a party.

When they made it back all the freedom fighters were there to greet them. Manic hopped out first to update Cyrus and the others on everything. Sonic was pushed out by Tails. (That's not an obvious sign that you're nervous at all).

Sonia came out next with his adoptive parents right behind her. Their eyes instantly locked onto Sonic. For a moment they just stood there, staring at each other.

"My baby." His foster mother trapped him in a hug, squeezing him so hard he might pop.

"Hey Mom."

Hearing his voice only made her squeeze harder. This was the little boy she had raised. The little boy she had to leave behind. Although he wasn't so little anymore. He had grown up.

His father came up behind her and put a hand on his shoulder, gripping it tight. Making sure this was the same boy he would always get onto for revving and was always eating chilidogs. His son. "Sonic…"

"Hi Dad." He looked up at his foster parent. Not that he had to look up far. He had grown nearly to his height... "It's been a while hasn't it?"

"Yeah." He gazed into his now emerald eyes, "I hear you've been busy."

His mother tore herself away from him, "I guess you could say that," the blue blur smiled up at the two, "At least I don't get bored." He closed his eyes, "And I don't need to look back to see the dumb grins on your faces guys!"

His friends behind him burst out laughing. Sonic opened his eyes, which were already pointed to the sky, and grabbed his foster parents hands, "Come on. I need to introduce you to the rest of the gang!"

The two followed gladly over to the small group of Mobians. Sonia and Manic were the first ones to step up, Sonic jumping in between them. "This is Manic, and you've already met Sonia."

"S'up."

"Hi again."

"Then there's Cyrus, Trevor, and Tails." He pointed called them, going up Tails as he named him.

"Welcome back."

"Hey."

"Hi."

Sonic's foster mother looked like she would burst from joy, "It's so nice to meet all of you."

Sonic smiled, looking around at his friends, "Let's show you guys around the base. After all, it's getting kinda cramped over here."

He was right. The area was filled with the newly freed Mobians and freedom fighters trying to help them. There were even some reunions mixed in there. It always felt good seeing those moments. 'I think I just became one of those moments,' Sonic realized.

"Come on," Sonia had ran ahead of them, "We can stop by the chilidog stand on the way."

"Heh." Sonic zoomed past her, stopping twenty feet away from her, "Let's go then!"

Tails starting spinning his tails to catch up to the others while the others started to run. Of course that just startled Sonic's foster family. And Cyrus and Trevor.

"It was a surprise for us too," they looked over to Manic who was right beside them, "They keep forgetting to mention it."

"Huh." Cyrus looked toward the two ahead of them. Tails was flying right above Sonic's head, and it looked like they were playing around because Sonic kept making mock efforts to catch him. "I guess you get used to it after a while."

Sonic's parents regarded this very confused, "Wait. If they've known each other that long how did you not know?"

They all exchanged a glance, "Well…" Sonia began, "It might be better for Sonic to help explain." She ran up to said hedgehog and explained what was going on.

He peeked over his shoulder and back to Sonia, then walked back to the others, "Why don't we go to the stand before we start explaining. It's going to be a very long story."

They all agreed and started heading toward the chilidog stand. Sonic quietly spoke to Tails about how to explain Green Hill and all their friends and the small fact that he was a prince.

By the time they arrived all the two had come up with, 'I was sent away for a few years and during that time a met a bunch of friends and almost got myself killed more than once. Oh, and I'm the prince of Mobius along with Sonia and Manic who are my brother and sister.' Probably not the best way to explain it.

"So son," his father sat down in one of the seats in front of the stand, "What's been going on around here lately?"

Sonic hesitantly sat across from him, "Well, I should probably start from the beginning." Sonia and Manic came up behind him, "You know how you found me in the doorway when I was a baby?" the two nodded, "Well, the person who put me there, my mother-"he took a deep breath, "Is Queen Alena. And she did the same for my siblings here, Sonia and Manic."

Their jaws practically hit the floor, "Queen Alena?"

The blue hedgehog nodded, "Yep. She had to give us up for some prophecy to come true. It basically says that once we find her we'll make this council of four and overthrow Robotnik." He looked up at the two's faced, "Oh it gets crazier than that."

Sonia stepped up next to him, "A few years ago we went on a mission to take out one of Robotnik's new bases and he, well. We went into one of the rooms and Robotnik was there with some sort of weird gun and when we came in he fired it. Sonic disappeared and so did Robotnik and the gun. We didn't know what had happened to him so we thought he was dead."

The expressions changed to horror.

"But I obviously didn't," Sonic imputed quickly, "It just teleported me to a different place. That's where I met Tails and all my other friends out there. Apparently that area's never been mapped before either so no one from around here came by and recognized me."

"What about Uncle Chuck? What was he doing during this?"

Sonic's ears instantly folded down to his head and he broke eye contact with the two. Manic decided to take the reign for him, "He was robotized. All our families were. Robotnik went hunting for us and he caught our family instead."

Sonic was staring down at his chilidog but pushed it away, not hungry. That surprised a lot of his friends. He usually had an endless appetite. Even when he was down. Tails came up and sat beside him, trying to find a way to cheer him up. Then he noticed it. His expression was the same as that day at his party.

"Sonic?"

He looked up to the fox, "I'm fine buddy," he ruffled the kit's bangs.

"You sure? You have that look, and you're not eating."

"I'm sure. I'm just not that hungry."

Tails crossed his arms across his chest, "I never thought I'd hear you say that."

The hedgehog rolled his eyes, "Coming from the fox who once ate fifteen chilidogs in one sitting."

"That's different. I have a high metabolism," he protested, "And you were the one who taught me how to make them. I wouldn't have eaten so many if you didn't teach me."

"Yeah," he smirked at his friend, "But I remember that when you didn't know you trashed the kitchen trying to find out."

"I was five!"

Sonic burst out laughing. Tails did too after a bit of pouting. His siblings relaxed next to him. Tails really knew how to make Sonic feel better.

His adoptive parents relaxed as well. Though they did still feel bad about Uncle Chuck. Maybe one day someone would find a way to derobotize the people who had fallen under Robotnik's reign.

"Now why don't I start explaining what went on in Green Hill? Er… the unknown land." Sonic looked back to his foster family smiling.

His mother smiled back, "Sounds wonderful."

"Cool. I'll start with all our friends."

"How many do you have?"

"Well," he looked down thoughtfully, listing all of them in his mind, "Besides Tails there's Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Rouge, Omega, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Vanilla. Wow. I didn't realize how many people we knew."

"And you didn't even name all of them!" Tails added.

"Sounds like you're pretty popular." His dad's comment made Manic snicker, which made Sonic headlock him.

They spent the next hour talking about all his friends in Green Hill and some of the adventures he and his siblings had that Sonia hadn't told in the transport. Soon though they had to get down to business.

"We're not going to have enough room for all these people in Freedom HQ and I don't think there are enough safe houses in Robotropilis. We need to take all these people somewhere safe." Cyrus pointed out, gazed around at the cramped room.

"I bet there will still be some who want to stay behind and help so that lowers the numbers a bit." Sonia sated, looking off at what looked like a small reunion with one of the ex-prisoners.

"Well, what about Sanctuary?" Sonic hopped out of his chair and stood in front of group, "I've been hearing people saying they're gettin' short staffed up there. I'm sure they'd be glad to take the help. And there's plenty of room for everyone."

"That's a great idea!" Sonia ran up to her brother and gave him a big hug, "I'm surprised you came up with it."

"Hey!"

The group laughed at the two then got to work. Cyrus organized all the people into the groups of who wanted to stay and who were leaving for Sanctuary. Sonia and Manic went to prepare the vehicles for the trip and Tails gather all the supplies.

Sonic stayed behind to talk to his parents, "You guys should go to Sanctuary with the others."

"What?" his father leaned forward to look into his eyes, "Why? I think we should stay her with you and your friends to help."

"I understand that, but I'd feel more comfortable if you were up there. I know you'll worry but I get the feeling you'd be more worried if you stayed here and saw all of the stuff I have to do. Besides I'm not going to be able to be here twenty-four seven anymore. I'm split between here and the unknown land."

His mother came up and put a gentle hand on his shoulder, "Alright Sonic. But you have to promise you'll come and visit us every time you come back from the unknown land or you get a chance."

The hedgehog smiled and gave his foster mother a signature thumbs up, "Deal."

The vans were rushed by children as they stopped in front of Sanctuary. All the new arrivals streamed out first, some finding children they had been separated from thanks to Robotnik. All the children seemed to enjoy the new friends though.

When Sonia and Manic came out they too were rush by the kids.

"Yay! Sonia and Manic are here!"

"Can we see your drums again?"

"Play a song! Play a song!"

"Is Sonic still gone?"

The two siblings looked to each other and then back to the young child who had asked the question, "Well, actually-"

"S'up!"

All attention was moved to the blue hedgehog leaning in the doorway of the van and the fox behind him.

"Sonic's back! Sonic's back!"

"Yay!"

"He brought a new friend too!"

Sonic chuckled as the vehicle was surrounded by all the children. "Hey there guys. This is Tails."

"Hi Tails!"

"Where did you go?"

"Do you have any other friends with you?"

"Will you play something?"

"Yeah! Play something!"

All the kids started chanting for them to play a song. Sonic was glad to comply, "Sounds good to me. Sonia? Manic?"

Manic started spinning his drumsticks around in his hands, "I'm game."

"Let's do it to it!"

They all touched their medallions making them glow brightly and release their instruments, "Let's play one of those new songs you learned."

"Sure thing Manic man!"

"A one a two a one two three four"

Sonic let loose a short sharp whistle then started playing,

"Aaah yeah. All right.

Well I don't show off, don't criticize

I'm just livin' by my own feelings

And I won't give in, won't compromise

I just only have a steadfast heart of gold"

Sonic saw his parents smiling and enjoying the music out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't know why I can't leave though it might be tough

But I ain't outta control, just livin' by my word

Don't ask me why, I don't need a reason

I got my way, my own way!"

Everyone in Sanctuary had come out to listen and were all laughing and smiling each other dancing about.

"It doesn't matter now what happens, I will never give up the fight

Long as the voice inside drives me to run and fight

It doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right"

Manic flipped his sticks in the air as he played, making all the children squeal in joy.

"Well, I don't look back, I don't need to

Time won't wait and I got so much to do

Where do I stop now, it's all a blur and so unclear

Well I don't know but I can't be wrong"

The guitarist could see a bunch younger of kids near the back playing with Tails and made sure to play louder so they could hear them.

"It doesn't matter now what happens

I will never give up the fight

Long as the voice inside drives me to run and fight

Place all your bets on the one you think is right"

Sonic released a long solo from his guitar, moving around with the children and laughing.

"It doesn't matter now what happens, I will never give up the fight

Long as the voice inside drives me to run and fight

It doesn't matter who in wrong and who is right

Oh no no no

It doesn't matter!"

The three took a bow as the last note ended and the crowd went wild. They returned their instruments to their necklace forms and split up around the place. Sonia went to help the rescues settle in, Manic was with the kids, teaching them how to drum using sticks that were laying around, and Sonic went off to talk to his parents and a couple of the caretakers for the kids.

"That was a wonderful song Sonic!" his mother gushed as he approached.

"Thanks Mom."

A tall girl mouse caretaker was sitting with them along with a brown bear with a red scarf. The mouse came up to him, "Hello Sonic, my name is Maddie and this," she indicated to the bear, "Is Amber." The bear, now identified as Amber, simply raised a hand in greeting. "That young boy you came with, how old is he?"

Sonic looked back at Tails who was sitting next to Manic watching the children drumming on the rocks, "About eight." He saw the question in her eyes, "But he's not staying here. He's sticking with me."

"Really? Are you sure?" Maddie looked very surprise at his response, "He's quite young. Aren't you putting him in danger?"

The hedgehog shrugged, "Maybe, but he would be pretty mad if I left him here. And besides, we're going to have to go home pretty soon anyway."

"Oh? You're leaving?" Amber now stood up, very interested.

"Yeah. I sort of have my duties split now between here and the unknown land. Although I do wish I could spend a little more time here. I'm gonna get some bruises when I get back." He rubbed his head, already feeling the mallet on his head.

"Sonic! Sonic!"

They looked up at three kids that looked about five or six standing a few feet away. The leader, a black and white cat with a small green jacket, ran up to the hedgehog, "What's that thing on your wrist?" he pointed towards the small orange watch wrapped around his wrist.

He held up his wrist so that they could get a better look at it, "It's a communicator Tails made for me for my birthday. He even engraved my name on the side," he moved it closer to the kids and pointed out the area where Tails had put his name on the band.

Then it started making several beeping sounds making the kids jump back. Sonic smiled in apology and pressed the answer button on the small keypad. Knuckles's face appeared on the monitor, "Sonic? You there?"

"I'm here Knux. What's up?"

"Amy tracked me down and made me call you." Knuckles rubbed the back of his head. Sonic could guess how she made him call.

"Does she not have one?" he asked, pinching his leg so he wouldn't laugh at the fact that Knuckles now had a bruise that he got almost daily.

"No. Tails only made a few of them and he gave them to the three of us."

"Sonic?"

Suddenly Amy Rose came into view, pushing Knux out of the way. Sonic in response jumped about five feet into the air, "Uh, hey Amy."

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving? You should have brought me. All I found was a note on your coffee table. You could have at least told us to our faces." She continued ranting for about a minute before she was interrupted.

"Amy, calm down! He must have a reason for leaving without telling us. Maybe he was in a hurry. And he did leave the note."

The pink hedgehog huffed and stalked away.

"Thanks Cream."

The small cream colored rabbit smiled at the hedgehog through the screen, "Your welcome Mr. Sonic."

An older rabbit came up behind her a bent down to see the screen as well, "Hello dear."

"Hey Vanilla. Everything alright over there?" Sonic was much more relaxed now that the fangirl with a hammer had been calmed.

"Everything's just fine, Sonic. We're more curious about what's going on over there."

"A lot more than you'd think," he looked up at his foster family sitting across from him and then back at the screen, "I'll probably be heading back there soon."

"Will you tell us the stories Mr. Sonic?"

"Course Cream," he looked to his side and saw Cyrus running toward them with a very alarmed expression, "And I might just have another one to tell."


	19. Truth

**Now that I read over this there are a lot of switches of perspective. Hopefully I pulled it off. :)**

**Kariko-chan: I know. What is it about Sonic Underground and never being finished. ;) And don't worry, they are about to learn of the Brotheryness of Sonic and Tails! That is all I will say. :)**

**werewolf lover99: It's never good news. ;P**

**insaneshadowfangirl: Oh. My. Gosh. *face palm* I'm so sorry manic. Oh! And by the way insane, you are about to be a very happy fangirl. ;) **

"Cyrus what's wrong?"

The lion was wheezing in front of the siblings. All the children were being corralled back inside by many of the new recruits while some of the older ones (and Sonic's parents) had stayed behind to hear what Cyrus had to say.

"Sleet and Dingo," he managed in between breaths, "Just announced that- Robotnik is back and is headed to Robotropilis."

There were gasps all around and even some crying. Sonia just stood there with a death grip on Manic's arm. Manic only stared at Cyrus.

Sonic, on the other hand, had his eyes grow the size of saucers then, realizing who they meant, face palmed. "Oh boy."

"That is a big understatement." His brother said beside him.

At that moment he remembered what the oracle had told him in the cave, 'Take your time. But not too much time.' If he didn't tell them now not only would they probably be madder at him then if he told them, but the surprise might just throw them off and they could be put in danger. This is gonna be fun. "Um… Guys?"

Sonia looked over to him with a concerned look, "What's wrong Sonic?"

"Well… I didn't exactly tell you everything about my first adventure. And pretty much every other adventure."

Now they were curious, "Sonic?" Sonia slowly walked up to him.

"You remember Eggman, right?" they nodded and Sonic took a deep breath, "His real name, is Dr. Ivo Robotnik." He braced for impact as the shocked silence hung in the air.

He definitely needed to, "What? Why didn't you tell us? Robotnik! What was the point of not telling us?"

Sonic was starting to feel a twinge of anger starting to form in him, "I didn't want to ruin your arrival. You cannot tell me that you would have been as happy or playing and relaxing if you knew it was him!"

Sonia slightly flinched at how much harsher his voice sounded than before, but quickly recovered, "No, but it still would have been better than not knowing! He could have attacked and destroyed half the city or something! We've seen his power!"

"You haven't seen his power!" Sonia completely flinched at Sonic's yell. He was really starting to get mad. "I was there when he blew up half the moon! I was there when he broke the planet apart! I was there when he took control of a bunch of super powerful entities, lost control of them and almost cost me my best friend! You have not seen his power. I have, and I have overcome every single one! No medallion. No magic laser shooting guitars. And not even my friends in some cases." He had started tearing up at this point, "I've had to face huge things alone. I've had to deal with everyone I love being lost again. I was trying to protect you."

With that he ran off at full speed, setting off a sonic boom in his quake, leaving all his family and friends just standing there staring at the space where he had been standing.

Tails, who had heard the sonic boom, ran over, "What happened? Where's Sonic?"

Maddie walked up to him, putting a mask over her face to hide the truth, "It's nothing sweetie. Why don't you go inside with the other kids?"

Tails wasn't so easily fooled, "I'm not that dumb. I have an IQ of 217 after all."

Maddie stood up quickly, very surprised. As were many of the other adults. Amber ran over next to Maddie, "It's not nice to lie, Tails."

"I'm not." The fox was getting annoyed now, "I built the machine that got us here and I built my own plane as well as pilot it. Now. Where is Sonic?"

Sonia jumped in before the two could accuse him further of lying, "After Cyrus told us Robotnik was back he told that Eggman was Robotnik, we fought, and then he ran off."

"Oh." He could tell wasn't going to be good, but he wasn't expecting that. He sighed, "I'll bet he's going off to wherever they're arriving from."

Sonic's adoptive mother rose, "What? Why would he do that?"

Tails shrugged, "That's Sonic. He gets really reckless when he's fighting for something he believes in. Especially if it has anything to do with the ones he loves."

Sonia and Manic looked at each other, then in the direction Sonic had ran off to. Then back to Tails as he started spinning his tails, "Tails, what are you doing?"

"I'm going after Sonic. What does it look like?"

Manic put a hand on his shoulder, "You do realize that this is a powerful maniac that happens to rule over this land."

"Of course I do," he shook the hedgehog's hand off, "I've faced him by myself before. He doesn't scare me. And besides, I'll be with Sonic." He took off after his blue companion.

The two siblings stood there for a few moments, taking in all that the fox had said, and ran to the van to follow.

* * *

Sonic ran with tears trailing behind him. He had expected them to be mad at him but he hadn't expected to get so mad himself. He half thought that dark super would come out. Then he'd have a lot more to explain. You know, after all the wreckage he caused was cleared.

"Sonic!"

He looked back to see Tails flying after him, waving his arms above his head. The hedgehog slowed down enough for the fox to catch up, "Tails, you should go back to the others. I don't want you getting hurt by my recklessness."

"Nope."

"Tails-"

He was interrupted, "You made me promise to stick with you while we were in Robotropilis, remember?"

Sonic chuckled, he remembered. He didn't think it would come back to bite him in the butt, but his reason was sound, "Fine. It's not like I could get you to leave anyway."

"Very true."

Sonic laughed harder. Nothing like your best friends to cheer you up. "Aright then! Let's go crack some eggs!"

"How many times have you used that joke?"

"I don't know but it never gets old!"

* * *

The two lay down on the ground a few feet away from the large airfield. The plane was expected to land any minute now, and that means that he should come out as well.

"Manic," the hedgehog looked at his sister beside him, "Why do you think Sonic didn't tell us about Robotnik?"

Silence followed. He thought he knew but he wasn't sure how she'd take it, "Sonic was right."

"What?"

"Well, he was trying to protect us. You heard all that stuff he said the Eggman- err, Robotnik, did. You definitely can't say you would have done any of those things you kept gushing to Mindy about if you knew." He was staring into her eyes, looking for that glint that told him he was right. He didn't get to see it often.

That glint did spark, "Yes but, wouldn't it be better to know if the person who had turned your life upside down was within striking distance? That we could end the war?"

Manic shook his head, "We wouldn't be able to attack him. We wouldn't even know where his base was. Even if we did, what would we do? We only had our medallions with us and we aren't familiar with their weapons. We wouldn't be able to do much. Plus, would you really want to go on some mission right after we found our brother again? And he was injured to add onto that."

Sonia winced remembering all the blood pouring out of the cut wrapped around his arm, "No," she looked down into her hands which had been clenched into fists until now, "I guess it was just the shock."

He nodded, satisfied with her answer, "Besides, I don't entirely mind my upside down life."

She smiled at him and moved her gaze up onto the pavement cover land, "I hope he's okay."

Manic laid his hand onto her back in support, "I'm sure he's just fine."

"I don't know," the princess gave her brother a sidelong look, "I've never seen him like that."

He had to admit, she was right. He had never seen his brother so angry. Especially at one of them. He'd never even gotten that mad at Robotnik. "I guess… he must have changed more than we thought."

"Yeah, he seems…" she put on a weird face, "More mature. I never thought I would be saying that."

Manic chuckled at his sister's joke, "I'm so telling him you said that."

Sonia laughed along with him. Until they heard the sound of a plane engine.

* * *

At the sound of the approaching plane, Sonic and Tails peeked out of their hiding spot on the air field. A small dot had appeared in the sky, growing bigger every second. Eggman.

Sonic turned to look at his friend next to him, then up at the two bounty hunters standing a few yards away. 'Man I hope this doesn't go south,' he thought, shifting his weight from foot to foot. A lot of energy had been pent up in him since he ran off. After this he was going to have to apologize to Sonia and Manic and tell them everything. Maybe even about werehog. 'No. I might still leave that out.'

The sound of the plane screeching to a halt interrupted his line of thought. The jet was probably the size of their house, painted grey with a large red symbol of a man with a huge mustache on the side. No doubt it was Eggman now.

And out came the man himself just seconds later. He even brought his two henchbots orbbot and cubebot. Sonic couldn't see far into the ship but what he could see worried him. He saw all of Eggman's different badniks all lined up, ready for action. They were all much stronger than the Swatbots that everyone here had to deal with, who knew what would happen when Eggman unleashed those things. He had to take them out.

"Tails," he whispered, making his voice low and sharp, "We need to try and take out that ship. There's whole hoards of robots in there."

The fox nodded, his eyes were serious with the situation, "Right. You distract them and I'll go for the ship."

"Got it" he ran out of cover, hiding the rage and sadness within him with his usual smirk and confident attitude, "Hey! Egg head!"

The scientist turn, his mustache twitching, "Sonic? What are you doing here?"

"What I always do, Egg head. Kick your butt!"

* * *

Manic and Sonia had jumped ten feet into the air when their brother had revealed himself.

As they got up to join the action a yell came from behind, "Guy! Wait up!"

Cyrus ran up to them, worn-out but also determined, "You're not doing this without me."

"Cyrus, we appreciate the-"

"Just wait," the hedgehog quieted down, "I mean it. I'm going with you. I can go search the ship while you guys are fighting Robotnik. With him back we're going to need as much info as we can get. I'm sure Sonic will tell us plenty when he's… cooled down." An akward silence hung in the air for a moment before he continued, "But we still need more. If I can get some data or something off that ship then we'll have a head start. You in?" he stuck his hand out in the sir between them.

Manic slapped his hand on top, "Totally."

Sonia joined, placing her hand at the top of the others', "I'm in too. Just be careful in there Cyrus."

"You got it."

"Break!"

* * *

Sonic ran back and forth past the villains, causing a mini tornado around them. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Tails boarding the plane. 'Alright he's in. Let's get this show on the road.' He stopped a few feet away and waited for the wind storm to calm enough for him to see his enemies.

The doctor was on the ground with his mustache going every which direction. Orbbot and Cubebot had probably been thrown who knows where. Dingo was on his back mumbling something about being dizzy. Sleet had his cape tangled around his head and was frantically trying to rip it off.

Sonic had abandoned his smile and mock technique and was now staring daggers at the three, "So, what are doing back here after so long? I thought you forgot about this place."

"I would never forget the land I rule," Eggman glowered at his nemesis, "This is the prime example of my success! It is the symbol that shows my power!"

"The power that's crumbling apart at the hands of the resistance" Sonic crossed his arms across his chest, not letting any emotion show, "And your 'power' doesn't exactly reflect back to the outside world. Green hill, Station Square, even your own space amusement park! If your power is so great why don't you have them under your control? What happened to those areas?"

"My my. Someone's uncharacteristic today. What's with all the seriousness? Did you get into a fight or something?"

Sonic tensed at his words but other than that showed no sign that the question had stabbed him right in the heart. "What's it matter to you? You know what, I don't wanna know. Just answer the question. What are you doing here?"

"Hmph." Eggman dusted off his jacket, "I'm here to finally stomp out that petty little revolt of course. With my new. -ish. Badnik line I can-"

And that was when the explosion went off.

* * *

Just as the group was about to set out to the airfield a loud explosion filled the air. A large cloud of smoke now filled the sky above them, lighted with the orange flecks of fire that reached high enough to meet the gray clouds.

"Sonic!"

Manic tried to see through the thick smoke. "Argh! I can't see a thing through there! Who knows if it's safe!"

"Oh man." Then the alarm in her eyes tipped over the brink, "Wait. Didn't Tails go after Sonic?"

"Yeah." Manic looked toward the hidden runway, "Let's just hope he didn't find him."

Then they heard the distant yells. Yells for a certain two tailed fox.

* * *

"Tails!"

Sonic ran full speed toward the lit plane, tears filling his eyes. Partly because of the smoke and partly from the thought of his little buddy trapped in the flaming plane. His little brother.

As soon as he reached the plane a spark of hope ignited in his chest. He heard coughing through the crackling of the flames, "Tails! Lil' bro!?"

"Son- Sonic?"

The bundle of fur appeared from the smoke, soot covering from head to foot, coughing. But alive. "Tails!" the hedgehog ran forward into the flames eager to swallow him and the entire jet, straight to his little brother.

The fox leaned into his embrace, coughing his lungs out. "Hold on bro. We're getting out of here." He looked around at his surroundings. It was mostly orange walls consuming everything in sight. He saw some motobugs amongst the fire. 'At least they're out of commission in here.'

* * *

The two siblings along with Cyrus ran down the slope, throwing all caution to the wind. Sonic's yells had alerted the three of the full terror that was in progress.

Not only had Robotnik come back but upon his return his plane went up in flames, catching a friends in its grip. Those villains were going to pay.

The villains in question were retreating when they arrived. Sonia quickly put a stop to that. She took out her laser gun and shot right in front of the three, stopping them in their tracks.

"Why you little brats!" Sleet was enraged. His face was red with anger and had dust all on it. It also looked like his cape had been ripped to shreds.

"You're not going anywhere!" Manic took out his own weapon, his earth shaking drum set.

Cyrus stood at the back, glaring.

Sonia raised her gun, "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Robotnik took a bold step forward, but no more, "It's that stupid hedgehog's fault!"

Sonia started advancing until two loud voices coughing nearby.

* * *

The fire had surrounded them completely. Sonic was starting to panic. They couldn't have been in there for more than a few minutes but it felt like hours. Hours of his little brother pressed against him, trying to keep the smoke out of his lungs. Hours of Sonic holding him close, looking for a way out of the deadly grip of the heated flames.

There was nothing to sneak through. Nothing to bust down. Just the fire eating away anything and everything. Just straight through the wall of heat was left now.

Sonic brought the fox closer to his body, shielding his from any more flames. 'I better not mess this up, or we'll both go down in flames.'

He started running head on into the flames. He had to get fast enough to create a wind barrier around himself. It'd protect him from many of the flames but not completely. The two would still be exposed to the burning light show. And Sonic was determined to take all of it for his little buddy.

The flames kept coming closer and closer, until they were right there. Right on him. And then they were gone. No more heat surrounding them. No more wall of hot death. They were laying on the hard pavement, coughing all the smoke out of their lungs.

Sonic squinted his eyes open. He could see Tails, panting hard against his chest, a grip as hard as Sonic's around him around the hedgehog. "Lil' bro?"

The fox looked up at him, soot turning his fur into a back mess, "Sonic?"

Sonic squeezed him tighter at the sound of his voice. "You're okay."

"Of course I am," he started coughing again, causing Sonic to loosen his grip, "I was trained by the best."

The hedgehog smiled warmly down at the small fox and brought him closer for another hug.

"How touching."

Both fox and hedgehog jumped at the voice, getting into battle stance. That wasn't Eggman's voice.

"Too bad I'll have to be ending it."

Just then Sonic felt an iron grip around his body, and then he blacked out


	20. Meeting of Brothers

**Hello peoples! How's it goin? Here's an update incase the answer is bad.**

**This story has tie ins with another of my stories called Confrontations. You don't have to read it if you don't want but if you have you'll recognize some of the elements in here.**

**More cookie hand outs! The bullies of this chapter are BigFanOfUser sonictailsbros for weak little pest, insaneshadowfangirl for Orphaned brat, and Eggman hater for imcompetent. You all get chocolate chip cookies! Keep sending in those names!**

**insaneshadowfangirl: EXPLOSIONS! ****Yes I've read your Underground stories. Does my fav on Moments prove it? ;)**

**Kariko-chan: Do not worry. Your limited Sonic-knowledge has not been reveled. Um.. besides me writing it here. *Poker face***

**ABCSonicKirbyWarriors: CLIFFHANGERS! MWA HA HA HA HA HA *cough* HA HA HA *hack*. I should stop now.**

**Eggman hater: Those names great. Unfortunately I am not using cuss words in this story. I really like the shameful waste of atoms one. But six years old don't really know much science so I won't be using in in this chapter. Dang! Does that count as spoiler? *poker face* And no it's not Snake or Dumbo (why Dumbo?) but I do like your mini story of the reveal of DSS.**

**scottusa1: Oh my gosh! Thank you so much. Auto correct says your name is spelled correctly. How is scottusa1 correct but Caden wrong?!**

**iamthedoctor480: No spoilers! Wait. It says your name is correct too! What the heck?!**

**I just realized I have enough reviews for super sonic! Yeeessssss! Now for the Chaos Emeralds. Review! **

**Holy crap long author's note. Enjoy!**

They all stood frozen where they stood, eyes glued to Sonic. The hedgehog was far off the ground, unconscious. Being lifted by a mysterious force.

That force didn't stay mysterious for long. "Hello there." Black aura started forming around Sonic, slowly forming a hand. Then an arm, and a body, and a head. He was taking shape, becoming a large monstrous man, completely black. His eyes opened and suddenly he was black anymore. Well, at least the parts that were visible. All he wore was a black cloak hiding his features. Glowing purple eyes shown from under the hood. "Sorry to intrude."

"Yeah right." Sonia moved her aim from the villains (who had seemed to mysteriously disappeared), "Put him down!"

"Now my dear princess, I'm afraid I can't do that." The said princess nearly dropped her gun in surprise, "Oh please. Of course I know who you are. I know all of you. I've been around since before those pendants of yours were made."

Sonia looked down at her keyboard. "Then how are you still alive? Who exactly are you?"

"I am Randell. I have lived through the power I stole from the master emerald that rested on the floating island." His eyes seemed to glow brighter, "It grew smaller as I did but those idiotic echidnas didn't seem to notice."

"But why?" Manic had his sticks hovering over his drum, prepared for the worst, "Why would you need to stay alive for so long? And shouldn't you be dead since the island was transported away?"

The hedgehog flinched as the purple eye moved their gaze to him. Something about this guy really put him off. And it wasn't just the huge cloak hiding his face or the glowing eyes. "I saved up enough energy to sustain me for a time after the disappearance. As for the reason I stayed alive…" he looked down at his captive, then reached to his neck, tearing off his medallion.

"Hey!"

"I have stayed alive for centuries to obtain the ultimate power. I will have all of the royal medallions sacred power and become the most powerful being in this kingdom." Dark clouds began swirling around him, and wind ripped around him.

"What?" Cyrus was now standing beside the two hedgehogs, "Ultimate power? What about the Choas Emeralds? They're much more powerful than the medallions!"

"I have already taken the power I need from the Chaos emerald and besides, they do not exist in this land anymore." The clouds began to conceal him from sight. As well as Sonic.

"No! Stop!" He wasn't listening. "Sonic!"

The clouds dispersed, revealing nothing. No Randell. No Sonic. Nothing.

Tails fell to his knees, sobbing.

Sonia was crying as well, but not as hard as the young fox. She looked over to her friends and motioned for them to follow her over to him. He needed support. He was so young. To go through something like this… Especially at the bond they shared. Sonia and Manic hadn't been with them for long but they could still see how close they were.

But as they came closer, they realized that they might just be closer than that. "My- my family."

Sonia bent down next to the weeping fox, "Tails. Are you okay?"

He didn't even looked up at her. "Sonic. You- you p-promised. No."

She didn't give up trying to get through to him. "Tails. What are you talking about? What promise?"

This time she reached him. He looked up at her with red eyes and black fur. "The- the promise he m-made when we- when we first met."

Seeing the opening, Sonia quickly took it "What was that promise?"

"That we wouldn't be split no matter what. That we would always be a team."

"Sounds like you were close from the start." Manic now came up to his side, "How did you guys meet anyway? I remember you saying something about following him."

He seemed to be calming down. The sobs turning into sniffles. "Yeah. When I was four I saw him running and followed him."

_Another day, another beating._

_The other kids seemed to have some sort of tracker on him. No matter what they always found him. Every day they'd come and tease him and beat him. On the days they didn't he was always tense, waiting for them to come out._

_Today they came early. He had been sitting by this big tree, drawing in the dirt with a stick. The leader, a gray wolf with a purple bandana that was way big on him since he got it from his dad, kick up the dirt that had been his picture. He had brought along his friends, an orange booted monkey and a black bear._

_They pulled at his tails a lot and sprinkled dirt on him. By the time they were done he had about sixteen new bruiser and a few new names to think over. Incompetent, weak little pest, and orphaned brat among them._

_The small fox decided to go Caden's, one of the town's mechanics. He had been always been nice to him. The only person actually._

_But as he set out something flashed by him and strong gush of wind followed. He couldn't see what it was but he thought saw blue._

_Always the curious type he followed the direction it went. Eventually he came to a large open field and saw what he guessed was the cause of that blues flash. A blue hedgehog was standing in the middle of the field, looking around. What he was looking for escaped the fox._

_But in the hedgehog's search he notice the kit hiding in the bushes. "Hey there pal. What'ch ya hiddin for?"_

_The fox reluctantly revealed himself from the shrubbery and winced when he saw the hedgehog notice his two tails. But that didn't seem to be what worried him. "Where'd you get all those bruises from?"_

_He looked down at his battered body, "The other kids found me again."_

_"Other kids? Again? How long has this been going on?"_

_The kitsune shrugged. "I don't know. A long time."_

_The hedgehog bent down to his eye level, "Haven't your parents done anything about it?"_

_"I don't have parents." He said it so matter of fact like it took the stranger off guard._

_Before he could say anything though a bunch of weird robots that looked like ladybugs on wheels came out and started charging at the two. They managed to jump out of the way and the hedgehog started to destroy them._

_Wanting to help the small four year old jumped in to help, using some moves he remembered the older kids using on him and some he just made up using his tails._

_"Not bad kiddo. Didn't think you'd still be over here." The blue hedgehog appeared next to the kit, "You're pretty brave for your age."_

_The fox beamed up at the stranger. The only person to ever be so nice to him was Caden. This was really cool!_

_Then two robots got on either side of them and charged. Not knowing what to do he grabbed the hedgehog and started spinning his tails and lifted them into the air, causing the two robots on the ground to crash into each other and were destroyed._

_Out of energy the fox dropped back to the ground panting. A hand was placed on his shoulder. When he looked up he saw the stranger smiling at him. He had expected him to shun him like the other people did. But he didn't._

_"That was pretty cool." His eyes showed no lying, this was all new to the young fox. He hadn't even showed Caden his flying. "How'd you do that?"_

_He straightened up and looked back to his tails, "I just spin them. I can't do it for very long though. I get really tired."_

_"Well I could use some help with my next adventure and your skills would be a great help. Think you'd want to come along with me? We'd be an interpretable team."_

_The fox brightened up to like the sun, "Really? Promise?"_

_"Promise. Now what's your name?"_

_"Um… Miles Prower." He said the words like he had a piece of sour candy in his mouth, "But I don't like it too much. The other kids like to bug me about it."_

_"Alright then, we can just give you a new name." the hedgehog thought for a moment, "What about Tails?" he suggested, indicating at the fox's two appendages._

_"Yeah! Tails! I like it!"_

_"Tails it is then. I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."_


End file.
